30 Friends: Shinichi and Heiji
by Candyland
Summary: Friends are forever, even if you want to kick them in the shins...or beat them with a katana. —As Time Goes By: We really have come a long way, haven’t we?—
1. Out of the Bag

**Title: **Out of the Bag  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#3—late-night conversation  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **It's in your best interest to just forget what you've learned here.

* * *

"_You're Kudo, aren't you?"_

_Denial._

_His protests were met by a ruthless assault of smug logic and evidence, accompanied by the realization that he'd inadvertently walked right into a trap. It hit him with all the weight and force of a charging rhino._

_Panic, panic, panic…_

_He was being threatened now—Ran was going to be told if he didn't confess immediately. No way, this wasn't happening, this was blackmail! It wasn't happening…_

"_WAIT A MINUTE!"_

_The scene froze, allowing him enough time to grab Ran's hand and pull her away under the pretense of being hungry. A childish complaint, really, but it was an effective one. As Ran scolded him for not eating earlier, he looked back over his shoulder at his rival, whose own eyes widened at the message sent with a mere glance._

_You don't know what you've done…_

_**-o-**_

Hattori Heiji was a bit startled to open his door…and find Mouri Ran standing there, looking worried. "Neechan?" he asked with a yawn; it was awfully late, after all, and it had been a rather long day, what with the murder and all. "What'sa matter?"

"I'm sorry to bother you, but have you seen Conan-kun?" she told him, wringing her hands. "I can't find him anywhere—he started acting weird right after you solved the case, and now he just disappeared." That last was said with an air of irritation over a child's perceived misbehavior before fading back into concern. "He didn't come to our room."

Heiji manage to not react. He'd known the answer, but he wasn't the one who had actually solved the case. That had been the doing of one, Kudo Shinichi, camouflaged behind a door and speaking in Heiji's voice courtesy of a small mechanical device disguised as a bowtie around his neck.

Kudo Shinichi…alias Edogawa Conan, precocious seven-year-old. His strange behavior had started right after the case—right after Heiji had called him on it. Too many coincidences, too many similarities, and too many observations to ignore.

The reason Heiji—and Kudo as well—were as good as they were was because they trusted the evidence above all else. No matter how innocent a person seemed, or how preposterous a theory appeared, they both let the evidence speak and guide their theories. Both refused to shy away from what the clues dictated, where others might be hesitant to believe. It was because of this that both of them had been as successful as detectives as they were.

Even with that philosophy of deduction, he'd been having difficulty wrapping his mind around that idea. Still, the evidence of his own observations were speaking loud and clear, and he had no choice but to listen to his instincts. And he'd been proven far too right.

"I haven't seen him," Heiji replied, yawning again. "Do you want me to help ya look for him?"

"You don't have to—" she started to respond.

"Nah, it's all right. M'awake, might as well," he shook his head, waving her protests away. He stepped out of his room and closed the door behind him, trying valiantly to ignore the fact that his pillow was begging him to come back for further cuddling.

It really didn't take Heiji long to find him. Ran just hadn't gotten that far yet—the kid was curled up on the couch in the sitting room, fast asleep. They hadn't really used this room in the course of the evening and its accompanying murders—he'd probably come here to have a proper heart attack, knowing he wouldn't be disturbed.

"Neechan!" Heiji called softly. "Found him!"

Ran was at his side in an instant, looking down at her small charge. "How many times have I told him to take his glasses off before he goes to sleep?" she sighed, reaching down and carefully maneuvering the frames away from the boy's face; she folded them and set them on the cushion by his head.

Heiji took a good look at the sleeping child. Without the glasses obscuring his features, the physical similarities between Conan and Kudo were even more pronounced. How had he missed that? Had he been walking around with his eyes closed?

No…he'd just fallen into the snare that Shorty there had apparently worked quite hard to cultivate: the simple but effective trap of appearances. Anyone who just looked at him saw a curious, inquisitive child of above-average intelligence who loved mysteries, nothing of real suspicion.

Anyone who actually _listened_ to the kid, though, or watched him at a crime scene…

How was it that no one had figured it out? Or at least noticed that something was very off-kilter?

"Do you think it's all right if I just leave him here?" Ran was asking him, and he snapped back to attention. "He looks comfortable, and we caught the killer…do you think he'll be okay?"

"I don't see why not," Heiji reassured her. Goodnights were said, and Ran headed back to seek her own bed. The minute the door closed, the cheery smile dropped right off Heiji's face, and he turned back to the slumbering not-child…only to find one blue eye wide open, wide awake, and regarding him warily.

"Thought you were awake," Heiji said.

Conan—or rather, Kudo—glared at him, showing no discomfort for lack of glasses.

"So, do you want to tell me what's going on now, or would you rather wait until morning?" the Osakan detective prodded, resting his folded arms on the back of the couch and leaning his weight against them. "I'd really like to know how you got stuck like this."

To his surprise, Kudo closed his eyes. "It's in your best interest," he said in a flat, even voice, "to just forget what you've learned here. Go back to Osaka, solve your mysteries there, and forget what you know. I strongly advise it."

"And why would I want to do that?"

"Trust me."

"That's not an answer," Heiji replied. He honestly didn't feel like Kudo was trying to just brush him off; there was something else prompting the cryptic response. "I want to know."

Kudo was quiet for a minute. "If knowing meant that your life was in danger," the not-child went on in that same detached tone, "and the lives of everyone around you could be in danger as well…would you still want to know? Think before you answer."

Heiji didn't think long—he'd always been impulsive, running into dangerous situations head-on without a thought for the consequences. He knew it, and it hadn't killed him yet; no reason to change his ways now. "Tell me." To drive home the fact that he wasn't leaving without an explanation, he stepped around the couch and took a seat.

Kudo finally sat up and looked at him. "You really want to know."

"Matter of fact, I do," Heiji said. "So talk."

It changed in the space of an eye blink. One instant, there was still Conan there. In the next, the last few shreds of the mask had fallen away—or had Heiji inadvertently torn them away?—and there was Kudo, unmistakably. But it was different from the first time they'd met. Then, the Tokyo tantei had been coughing and sick, but standing tall and putting Heiji right in his place.

Now…he looked so tired. "You okay?" Heiji asked.

The Evil Eye he got in response was strangely reassuring. "Would you be?"

"Probably not," Heiji admitted. "Why don't you want anyone to know?"

"Because they want me dead," Kudo replied bluntly. "And if…when I get caught," he corrected himself, "I don't plan on taking anybody else down with me. So just forget about it."

"So you're hiding out from some people who are trying to kill you?" Heiji repeated incredulously.

"Exactly."

Heiji frowned. "Who are they?"

There was a long, long pause before Kudo sighed. "I don't know."

It took everything Heiji had to keep from making a joke. Kudo Shinichi, admitting to not knowing something? It was tantamount to a sign of the Apocalypse, as far as he was concerned! But he held his tongue. No seven-year-old should seem this worn. Hell, it would have been out-of-place on Shinichi himself, were he his normal age.

Heiji made a quick decision. His curiosity was screaming at him, demanding answers, but his conscience said _Back_ _off._ And maybe there was a little bit of guilt at dragging this out of his rival. Plus, he was exhausted himself. "Tell you what," Heiji suggested. "There's no way in hell I'm letting you off the hook for an explanation. I'm way too curious about whatever it is that's going on. But…we're both worn out. So let's sleep on it, and you can tell me the story tomorrow. That'll give you time to figure out all the nasty names you probably want to call me." He punctuated that last with a grin.

He was encouraged when the tiniest of smiles cracked on the not-child's face.

"For what it's worth, I'm not gonna tell," Heiji went on, relieved. "I'll respect the fact that you don't want the whole world to know, but I'd really like to know the who, what, where, when, why. I think that's fair, don't you?"

"I suppose that is fair," Shinichi nodded after a moment's thought. Then he leveled Heiji with a Look. "Why are so curious, anyway? It's none of your business, and you can't help me."

"Why am I so…" Heiji repeated, managing to not laugh. "You're supposed to be my age. You're not. This ain't normal, and I want to know what's going on. And…hell, whose to say I can't help ya out?"

"I'm hitting dead ends left and right," Kudo went on.

"Two heads are better than one," Heiji retorted. "We did pretty well tonight—except for that little thing with your magic sleeping needle." He reached over and thwapped Conan on the back of the head at the memory. "If you ever do that again, I'll drop-kick you."

Apparently, the smaller detective caught the jibe for what it was. "Well, _excuse_ me, but you were certainly taking your sweet time about it!" the boy shot back, that irritatingly familiar smirk inching its way back onto his face. "Did I have to make a visual aid and sing it for you?"

"You sing one note, and you're out the window," Heiji fired right back in turn. "From what I hear, your voice is a lethal weapon—kills dogs, breaks glass, makes hydrants explode…"

"It's not THAT bad!" Kudo protested, clenching one small hand into a fist. Still, even as they argued (in the loosest sense of the word), the first faint glimmers of trust were begin to reveal themselves from the very depths of knowing blue eyes.

Shinichi sat back, arms folded. "Why are you so eager to help me, anyway?"

"Well, it's a mystery, and I never back down from one," Heiji acknowledged. "But…I dunno, you seem like you need it. Don't argue." He held up a hand to stay the protests before they could even begin. "You're just like me. You hate to admit that you're wrong, and you hate to admit you need help, even when it's offered. I bet you still have trouble asking people to get things off high shelves for you."

Kudo's response of silence said plenty. Still, that glimmer of trust seemed to be growing.

"Does Neechan really not know?" Heiji asked.

_That_ got a reaction. "No!" Kudo hissed furiously, eyes blazing as he nearly rose up on his small knees. "She doesn't know! Especially not her! Listen to me, Hattori. _Ran can't know!"_

Heiji held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay, okay, I was just asking." A pause. "Why don't you want her to know? I'd figure she would be the one person you would tell…"

"There are a lot of reasons," the boy sat back down and folded his arms. "It's complicated."

After a moment, Heiji smiled knowingly. Still, he let it go. Plenty of time for teasing later. "So tomorrow," he said firmly in a sudden change of topic, standing up and stretching his arms over his head as far as they would go, "you're gonna tell me everything. And we'll see where things go from there. Deal?"

"Deal," Shinichi said after a moment.

"Get some sleep, Shorty. You look wiped out," Heiji advised.

"Well, I've had about five coronaries so far tonight," Shinichi snapped back, rolling his eyes and expertly ignoring the jibe about his height. "I have _you_ to thank for all of them, I might add."

"Don't blame me, I'm here on vacation," Heiji laughed to brush the jab off easily; he headed for the door. "G'night. Talk to you tomorrow!" And he was gone, leaving Shinichi to stare at the ceiling and spend the rest of the night wondering how the hell he had slipped up so badly.

Yet he was slowly realizing that it could be worse.

_**-o-**_

The bus arrived shortly after sunrise.

Climbing the stairs to board it was surprisingly difficult, Shinichi found. Because he realized that Full Disclosure was waiting for him. Hattori really did have him in a bind. And Kudo Shinichi did _not_ like losing control, especially of his own situation.

But the cat was out of the bag, whether he wanted it to be or not. He just had to make sure that it didn't get any further than this one person. Sighing, he stepped up onto the bus—acknowledging over his shoulder that yes, Ran-neechan, he had everything.

Hattori was already there, sitting in the very first seat. "Mornin'!" he said cheerily.

Trying not to let any nerves show—this was his life and more on the line, after all—he swung himself up into the seat next to him. "When we get going," he hissed, "I'll start."

Heiji nodded and settled back in his seat.

Ran boarded right behind Conan, and she paused to look at them.

"I wanna sit next to Heiji-niichan!" Conan bubbled, suddenly the energetic little boy he appeared to be, all smiles and big eyes. "Can I, Ran-neechan? Please?"

Her expression turned towards Heiji, who looked properly stunned. "Is that okay?"

He quickly shook himself. "Not a problem! I'll keep an eye on him!" he forced a grin.

Ran seemed satisfied, and continued towards the back of the bus to sit next to her father.

The smile dropped from Heiji's face and he leaned down towards his decidedly-smaller seat partner. "How the _hell_ did you do that?" he growled. "Gimme a freakin' heart attack, why don'tcha?"

The smirk on Conan-kun's face was unmistakably Kudo's—it was lucky that Ran couldn't seem him. "Practice, Hattori. Practice. They think I'm a kid, remember? So I act like one. Get used to it, pal." He looked and sounded very smug, and seemed amused at Heiji's reaction.

Heiji sat back, still giving the boy a wary look.

Still, Kudo had just called him "pal." That was hopefully a good sign…

A few moments later, the bus started moving forward. They were finally getting away from this godforsaken spot. The murderer was under arrest and in the custody of police. Case closed.

Not wanting to push, but still antsy for the story that was forthcoming, Heiji looked down at his smaller seat-partner, only to find that the child was already looking up at him expectantly.

Without waiting for any further prompting, Kudo Shinichi sat back in his seat, folded his hands together behind his head…and began. "It all started when Ran and I went to Tropical Land…"

* * *

**PS.** …_I know, I know. Another challenge. But I really like the dynamic of the friendship between our two favorite detectives. So…I fic them! MWAHAHA! Much love to **SoulSeeker** (otherwise known as Amm-chan) for pointing me in the direction of this lovely community. Hope you'll check out all thirty of them. Knowing Shinichi and Heiji…this could get very, very interesting._

_As for this fic, it's one of those series things that's always bothered me. We go from "nighttime, case is solved, Heiji has Shinichi by the tail" to "daylight, riding a bus back to town, end of Full Disclosure." So I tried to fill in the blanks a bit. Plus, Heiji is prone to his occasional flashes of insight. They just don't happen where Kazuha's concerned :) Thanks, everyone! Much love!_


	2. Waiting

**Title: **Waiting  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#7—an ugly shirt  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Girls, they decided, were the most complicated creatures in existence.

* * *

"Shinichi? Hattori-kun?" Ran said. "How much time is left in the game?" Beside her, Kazuha was tapping her foot impatiently. They were ready to go shopping—but the guys had found an American football game on TV, and were engrossed in it. And they weren't moving until the game was over.

"Thirty-two seconds," Shinichi called back.

There was a short pause. Then, finally, Ran dared to ask the question. "Thirty-two real-life seconds, or thirty-two football seconds?"

"Thirty-two football seconds," Heiji interjected, not moving his eyes from the screen.

Kazuha sighed. "Sometimes it feels like all we do is wait for those two!"

"I know…" Ran nodded.

Half an hour later, the girls finally dragged their boys away from the television.

And towards their impending doom.

_**-o-**_

The original suggestion—made by the girls, of course—had actually been to go shoe shopping. That alone was enough to make the two teenaged detectives cringe. But in accordance with some obscure Laws of Nature, they'd been in the department store for nearly two hours…and had yet to actually make it to the shoe department.

Instead, the girls had gotten there and realized that there was a sale in progress. And big sales meant cute clothes at great discounts. Well, that's what it meant to Ran and Kazuha, anyway.

To Heiji and Shinichi, it meant torture. It meant pain. It meant lots and _lots_ of waiting.

So far as Heiji was concerned, Kazuha already had enough clothes to outfit the entire female population of their school without reusing anything. But…well, she could be very persuasive, be it with her fists or by the simpler, more traditional method of just guilt-tripping him into it. She could manage either with great aplomb.

Shinichi, on the other hand, had only recently returned (as himself), and was surprisingly willing to subject himself to such torments if it meant spending time with Ran. Granted, sitting there and waiting for her to try on half the clothes in the store was only spending time together in the loosest sense of the word, but still, he could always harbor secret hopes that they might look at bikinis or some such thing.

Thus far, no such luck.

Either way—nagged there or dragged there—they found themselves sullenly occupying two chairs outside the women's fitting rooms. Adding insult to injury, Ran had cheerily tossed her purse to Shinichi; it was now perched on his knee. He was debating as to whether or not he should see what exactly she had in there—the thing, pastel pink in color, was the size of a CD case, yet weighed as much as a small brick.

How did they do that, anyway?

"Didn't they come here to look at shoes?" the Osakan teen asked, slouching further down in his chair. If he went much lower, he was going to wind up in a nice Heiji-puddle on the ugly carpet. "Not like Kazuha needs more shoes…"

"That was the original plan," Shinichi sighed, putting his chin in his hand and resting his elbow on the armrest. "You think this is bad? You should see Sonoko when she goes shopping. She could go into a store for toothpaste, and walk out with half their inventory of clothes. It's almost impressive."

Heiji let his head lull back to look at the ceiling. "When did we get here?"

"We got here at eleven-thirty," Shinichi replied. "But we haven't actually seen them since noon."

"What time is it now?"

"Quarter after two."

"You've gotta be kidding…" Heiji heaved a sizable sigh and slumped even further. "I vote we leave. This is like prison, and we have no hope of getting paroled anytime soon." Glowering darkly, he straightened suddenly and turned towards the dressing rooms. "Kazuha!" he called, but received no answer. He sighed and tried again, a bit louder this time. "I know you can hear me, ahou, quit pretending you don't! How much longer is this going to take?"

To both their amazements, Kazuha stepped out (wearing what had to be, in Heiji's humblest of opinions, theweirdest shirt he'd ever seen her in)and fixed him with an Evil Eye. "You really need to learn to be patient, ahou. We're almost done—it hasn't been that long."

"It's been just shy of two and a half hours," Shinichi corrected her. "It _has_ been that long."

"Oh brother…" Kazuha rolled her eyes and withdrew to the changing room. She could then be heard commenting, "Ran-chan, they're actually timing how long we've been in here."

And once again, the boys were left to their own devices. For a moment, they were silent. Then…

"Hey, Kudo?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you do me a favor?"

"What's that?"

"Shoot me. Just shoot me. Please?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because then I'd have to sit here alone. Misery loves company and all."

"…point."

Another pause.

This time, Shinichi spoke first. "I'm trying to guess how this will all play out. They're either going to buy absolutely nothing and this will have all been a tremendous waste of time, or they're going to buy everything they tried on and try to make us carry all the bags and packages home for them. Any thoughts?"

"I do have a thought," Heiji raised an eyebrow. "I think we should leave."

Shinichi shrugged. "It's your funeral."

From there, the conversation slid into monotonous mutter about the most mundane things. Just when they were both ready to burst into full-blown mutiny, Fate decided to take pity on them, and give them a legitimate reason to flee.

"OH MY GOD!" a woman's voice shrieked from the other side of the store. "HE'S DEAD!"

Shinichi looked at Heiji.

Heiji looked at Shinichi.

Identical grins broke on both their faces as they jumped from their chairs and sprinted towards the scream, pausing only long enough for Shinichi to toss the small pink handbag over the door of Ran's fitting room; it landed hard enough to register on the Richter scale.

Running. Escaping. Sweet, sweet freedom.

And no more waiting.

* * *

**PS.** _Nothing like getting a new CD full of some really awesome songs to get the ol' creative juices going, ne?_ _This particular little thought stemmed from the song "Waiting Trio" from the musical **I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.** I think there will be quite a few stories featuring songs from that show, yes indeedy. Hope you enjoyed the randomness. Thanks for reading—much love!_


	3. The Usual Debate

**Title: **The Usual Debate  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#12—argument  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Boys will be boys, and boys will argue.

* * *

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Beika. The sun was shining down over the home of one, Agasa-hakase. The gentle spring breeze drifted through the open window, just strong enough to rustle the curtains, and then wafted back out again, carrying on it the sounds of an intense argument.

A familiar argument. One loud enough to be heard in Osaka.

"Arthur Conan Doyle."

"Ellery Queen."

"Arthur Conan Doyle."

"Ellery Queen."

"DOYLE!"

"QUEEN!"

"DOYLE!"

"QUEEN!"

In other words, it was one of the normal arguments that tended to rage between Hattori Heiji and Kudo Shinichi, the Great Detectives of the West and East respectively. It was almost as heated as their last debate between soccer and baseball—_that_ little discussion had ended in a fist fight that Agasa-hakase had eventually broken up.

That one had been a little extreme, though. Normally, these kinds of "discussions" simply wound up in full-blown Obscenity Contests, not attempts to break each others' noses. But we digress.

It was on this day, however, that a poor, almost-innocent bystander would be dragged headfirst into their argument, and left with the almost impossible decision of awarding a victory to one or the other. Said bystander just happened to be sitting in the room while they were having their discussion (and proving remarkably adept at ignoring them) when she was approached directly.

"Haibara, would you please settle this?" Shinichi asked.

Sitting at her computer, hard at work and looking every inch a very small college researcher, Haibara Ai looked up at the two and quirked a brow. "I beg your pardon?"

"Who's better—Arthur Conan Doyle or Ellery Queen?" Heiji prodded.

"Is that what you two have been arguing about? I couldn't hear you over all the yelling," she deadpanned, glancing back at her computer screen. "I think it's safe to say that the entire neighborhood knows what you were discussing."

The two high school detectives at least had the grace to look chagrined.

"Come on, Haibara. Just say who you think has the best detective stories," Shinichi asked again.

With a sigh, Ai nodded. "Very well." Having thus agreed to be the judge of this, she thought. She thought very, very carefully for several minutes while her two detective friends waited with varying degrees of patience. Then she smirked triumphantly at them. "Neither."

Heiji raised an eyebrow. "Neither? What do you mean, neither?"

"Just what I said, Hattori-kun," Ai sat back, still wearing that little half-smile. "Neither."

"We asked you to settle this debate for us," Shinichi frowned.

"I know."

"So who's got the best detective stories?" Heiji demanded.

Haibara's smile grew a bit wider and a bit more evil. "If you must know, when it comes to detective stories, I've always been rather partial to Inspector Gadget. He's always on duty."

Heiji and Shinichi both sweatdropped. "Umm…"

"Hey, you asked."

* * *

**PS.** _I actually owe this one to my dear friend Kelly. She's the one who made this comment to me when we were discussing mysteries and the people who solve them. Hope you enjoyed the randomness of this. Yes, I just kinda dropped Ai into it, but it was either her or Kaito…and I thought the image of Ai saying this was funnier, and so it stuck. Thanks for reading, everyone! Much love!_


	4. Complexity

**Title: **Complexity  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#4—walk beside me  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Kudo was complicated. He knew that all too well.

* * *

Kudo Shinichi was a complicated person. 

It was one of those things that Heiji had known before even meeting the guy. That initial meeting in the diplomat's office—right after Kudo had shown him up—had sort of driven that point home. The Tokyo tantei was sweating and gasping and kept clutching at his chest; Heiji had honestly thought his rival was having a heart attack or something similar. Their brief verbal exchange hadn't changed his opinion; even though the guy looked like he was dying, he still managed to talk to Neechan and calm her down and then turn around and give his new rival what amounted to a scolding. Then he'd vanished. And Heiji wondered.

But it wasn't until the Sherlock Holmes tour that he learned _exactly_ how complex Kudo really was, to say nothing of how messed up his situation was. From then on, through their various visits and exploits, time spent working together, he'd learned a lot about his rival-now-friend. There were far more layers to Kudo Shinichi than he'd even imagined, things that he wondered if even Neechan knew. Still waters run deep, as the saying goes, and that infamous smirk masked a great deal.

The trick had been learning how to deal with Kudo on those occasions when the complexity really kicked in. And right now was one of those moments, when the chibi was in one of his brooding moods.

They were out with the girls, wandering the streets of Osaka during a visit. Ran and Kazuha were walking ahead, laughing and giggling about something—probably something pointless, Heiji privately thought,if Kazuha was involved. The two boys were left to trail along a few steps behind. Heiji had tried a few times to start a conversation, but it seemed his Eastern counterpart wasn't in a talkative mood.

They continued on in silence until suddenly, Kudo began to lag behind a bit.

Heiji slowed his step a bit, falling back into step and walking beside his diminutive friend. He studied the shorter boy carefully; Kudo had the forlorn look of a lost child. And following his gaze…

He was looking sadly at Ran, the hopeless expression of a beggar child reaching for the stars.

It seemed like 'Conan' was wearing that look a lot lately. Then again, how long had he been stuck in that body? Kudo's feelings for Ran weren't exactly a secret, save for Ran herself. He'd been trapped in his childish form for so long, finally realizing exactly how strong he felt for her, and unable to do anything about it, save for calling her as Shinichi once every few weeks and trying to comfort her as Conan when she cried about how much she missed Shinichi.

He was burning out, and he was miserable, no matter how much he tried to hide it. He just swallowed most of his complaints and pressed on in the hopes that things would eventually come together. He still had trouble asking for help, even when he needed it the most…

Like right now.

It just wasn't right. Heiji couldn't watch his friend silently suffering like that and do nothing to even try and help. Granted, he knew there really wasn't anything he could do to ease the burden draped over the young shoulders, per se, but maybe…

Maybe…

On an impulse, he reached down and put a hand on top of the boy's head.

Obviously, Kudo hadn't been expecting physical contact—aside from occasionally hoisting him to get him away from the girls when necessary, there just wasn't a ton of touching between them. The chibi's head jerked back, and he looked up at the older boy with startled, curious eyes.

Heiji didn't say anything. He simply smiled, trying to convey the message he knew he couldn't utter aloud with the girls in earshot. _Hang in there. I'm with ya, whether you want me to be or not._

Behind Conan's glasses, Kudo's eyes studied him. There was a flash of comprehension, and then Kudo smiled back and nodded ever so slightly. Feeling his grin widen, Heiji gave the child's hair a ruffle (ignoring the resulting squawk) and dropped his hand back to his side. They continued to walk along, side by side, without saying a single word to each other.

Still, the message was received, loud and clear.

Heiji couldn't lift the burden. But he could offer to share it, and stick by him. Whether or not Kudo accepted that offer was up to him. Still, Heiji noticed with some satisfaction, there was definitely a bit more of a spring to Kudo's step after that. And at that moment, that was what mattered.

* * *

**PS.** _I just had this scene in my head and lo, it became a fic. A short fic. A short fic with absolutely no spoken dialogue, even! That doesn't happen very often with me. Anyway, another Friends fic successfully completed, joy of joys! This really is kind of a back-burner project while I work on Nights and Hugs. That's why these are a bit slower in coming along. Hope you'll all stick around._

_Oh yeah—did ya notice? Story number four went with theme number four? I totally planned that. Totally._

_Thanks to all the lovely readers and reviewers—you all make my day! Much love, everyone!_


	5. Two Halves of a Whole

**Title: **Two Halves of a Whole  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#28—golden thread  
**Rating: **R (a little bit graphic, rating to be on the safe side)  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Please, I need your help. I think I'm dying…

* * *

Conan (otherwise known as Shinichi) wasn't one hundred percent sure how it had all happened or who was behind it—everything had gone down so fast that the young detective was unable to process much before he found himself encased in darkness.

One moment he was on the street, heading towards home (meaning the Mouri Detective Agency), and then there'd been a hand over his mouth, easily overpowering his childish body. There was a smell, the odor of something…he knew the name of the drug, but he couldn't place it through the sudden haze clouding his senses, and then…

He was waking up here, in a place he didn't recognize.

The realization hit him like a sledgehammer to the head: he'd been kidnapped.

He shifted experimentally, and found movement to be extremely difficult. As the last remnants of the drug's effects left him and the world came a bit more into focus, he was able to take a better stock of the situation. His hands were tied behind him tightly enough that his fingers were going numb, and his feet were bound in a similar manner.

The room around him was surprisingly well-lit, the floor beneath his cheek made of stone that scratched his face as he tried to move. He thought he heard something dripping nearby…but he didn't have much more time to consider his surroundings as the door opened. Instinctively, Conan forced himself upright into a sitting position and waited apprehensively for whatever was coming.

Still, nothing could have really prepared him for the person who walked in and stood over him, glaring down at him with cold, unfeeling eyes and a triumphant smirk. The man spoke, in a low, gravelly voice. "Kudo."

Behind Conan's eyes, Shinichi steeled himself, and replied, "Gin."

The man in black—the one who had screwed his life up sideways—withdrew one hand from his pocket and reached towards a nearby table. His height aside, his position on the floor made it impossible to see what Gin was reaching for. But he listened to the madman speak…and it made him nauseous.

What was it about villains like Gin that made them so prone to gloating and such, like third-string actors in poorly-written high school plays? He hadn't really figured his 'worthy adversary' for the type, but it didn't really matter, he supposed—for the moment, it seemed that his opponent had won, and he had lost.

Given that his enemy was describing a few creative ways of causing terrible pain with minimal effort on the part of the torturer…this didn't bode well for him, particularly when Gin stood over him, a maniacal grin on his face and a long-bladed knife in his hand and asked one question that turned his blood to ice in his veins.

"Where's Sherry?"

He kept his mouth shut, and waited for what he knew was coming next.

…oh God, it _hurt_…and it wasn't going to stop oh God _oh God panic leave me alone…_

_**-o-**_

It was one bombshell after another.

Edogawa Conan was missing—a kidnapping victim, if Yoshida Ayumi was to be believed. They had separated at their usual point on the walk home from school, and the girl had turned back over her shoulder just in time to see a man in a black trench coat scoop her dear friend into a black car and speed off. She was extremely fortunate that the man in question hadn't seen her. But Conan had taught her well, and she hightailed it to a phone and called the police, giving them every shred of information her memory could rustle up. It wasn't much, but it was something to start with.

Ran, naturally, had been heart-broken. But it was the reaction of Hattori Heiji (who was visiting) that had a few eyebrows raised. He seemed properly terrified, and had immediately withdrawn to make a private phone-call. Shortly thereafter, Agasa-hakase and Haibara Ai had appeared on the scene with a laptop in tow.

It didn't take a detective to realize that something was going on, and Heiji knew more about it then he was directly letting on. The investigating officers—the usual crew from the Tokyo Metro PD—quickly noticed the young man's odd behavior. But in the end, it was Satou-keiji who grabbed his arm, dragged him off to the side and away from prying ears, and told him in no uncertain terms that he _was_ going to tell her whatever it was that he knew, and do it quickly. Or else.

With such a threat hanging in the air, she was a bit surprised when he still hesitated. She prodded him, though—anything he knew that could help them find Conan, he needed to share. And she refused to let up; after all, Satou could be quite persuasive when she wanted to be.

Heiji quickly recognized his situation for what it was: he'd been backed into a corner. And he had to chuckle to himself as he realized that this was probably how Kudo had felt when Heiji had confronted him about the exact same secret.

And finally, desperately…Heiji cracked.

_**-o-**_

_He saw the next toy of pain in Gin's hands and closed his eyes against what he knew was coming._

_The next thing he knew, he was floating, looking down at himself. It was without a doubt the most unsettling thing he had ever experienced, even surpassing waking up and finding himself in his childhood body. Was this what they called an out-of-body experience?_

_Even stranger, he seemed to be in his true body. He looked down at himself, and was scared half out of his wits to realize that though he was his seventeen-year-old self, he could see the floor right through his own hands; the wall was visible through his legs. Yet his seven-year-old body remained there on the floor, prone for punishment at his enemy's hands._

_He studied the child's body, his face. He was sitting upright, leaning against the stone wall…but his expression almost resembled that of a drug user's stupor: pale-faced, mouth hanging slightly open, eyes half-lidded and glazed. He actually looked like the lights were on, but no one was home._

_Gin didn't seem to notice, though. The murderer was still gloating, giving a detailed explanation of what this newest tool could do, the pain it could cause. And truthfully, it sounded horrible. Even outside of himself, hovering like he was, the very thought of it made him shudder. And as he glanced around, he found he was actually able to see what was in there._

_It made him realize just how dire his situation truly was._

_Now his tormentor turned back to him, ready to act upon his threats. Gin advanced upon the still, hollow form. Floating like a ghost, he couldn't tear his eyes away as he watched the device clamp down on his leg…and he saw and felt it break with an audible snap._

_He recoiled and cried out in pain, but it did not reach Gin's ears. If anything, the madman seemed disappointed that the trick drew no response. He kicked the child's body, and watched as his victim simply fell over, ending up on his side on the floor, arms and legs still bound._

_A harsh smirk crossed Gin's face, and he reached for another tool._

_His would-be victim watched in horror…but realized that maybe, just maybe, there was still a chance for him to make it out of this alive. If he was free from his body, then perhaps it was possible for him to get help! But…Gin hadn't heard him cry out in pain as his leg was broken._

_Still, he had to try. It was his only chance._

_And then he noticed it. There, on the floor, was what appeared to be a thread, shimmering gold against the dark stone of the floor. He studied it—Gin didn't seem to notice it, so it must only be visible to him. Strange, though—the end of it led to his own body, while the other end traced a path out the door._

_Where did it lead, he wondered?_

_A glance back at Gin's preparations for the next trick decided him He really had no other options._

_Taking a deep breath, Shinichi followed the golden thread._

_**-o-**_

The building was relatively average. It didn't seem like anything special.

But according to Haibara Ai's laptop and the tracking device in "Conan's" glasses, their elusive quarry was somewhere inside that structure. They just had to find him before it was too late.

Heiji's confession to Satou had caused quite a splash when the other officers had been clued into the truth of the situation—the who, the what, and the why. But anger had been set aside in favor of a more important task: finding the victim. Angry words and long explanations could wait until they knew that everyone was safe.

Based on stern recommendations from the parties involved—Heiji, Haibara, and the good professor—the police were plentiful. And on the signal, they went in. Technology proved their friend, and the tracker had done its job. There were operatives there, and their reactions at the police bursting in might have been comical had the situation not been so precarious.

And the hunt began for one very small needle in an enormously evil haystack, as it were. No one would help—either they didn't know where the not-child was, or they simply weren't telling for whatever reason. Based on what he knew of them, Heiji assumed the former.

He had accompanied them, whether they wanted him to or not.

Yet as they searched, none dared voice their hidden concerns that this was a futile hunt.

_**-o-**_

_He was…where exactly was he now? Where had he ended up? Shinichi had a momentary flash of panic as he realized that he had wandered so far from his body._

_But then he refocused, ever the calm, practical detective. He was in a hallway, standing near a large group of people who seemed to be frantically discussing something. In fact, that was…Megure-keibu? The usual crew of crazies from the Tokyo Metro Police Department? …his father?_

_He heard his name pop up in the rushed conversation—they were looking for him._

_He called out to them, but none seemed to hear his voice. He tried to grab them and shake them, to make them aware of his presence…but his arm passed right through them, throwing him off-balance, and he nearly face-planted on the floor as a result._

_Damn, this wasn't working. He looked back down at the golden thread. It had led him this far—he decided to take a chance, and continued to follow it. It went past the adults, and led straight to…_

_Hattori._

_Hattori Heiji, standing back a bit, watching the proceedings with a relatively blank expression. His emotions were betrayed, though, by the way his hands were clenched into fists at his sides, and the slight downturn of one dark eyebrow. It appeared that he was being left out of the proceedings._

_But what drew his attention the most was that Hattori almost seemed to be…glowing. The same golden shimmer as the line that had led him there in the first place. As he looked at everyone else, he realized that everyone had this shine. But where the others were merely candles, Heiji was a search-light. And it drew him like a moth to a flame._

"_Hattori!" he called frantically, stopping right beside his friend. He didn't expect anything to happen, as his own father hadn't even been able to hear him. Whatever he was, however he was here, it apparently wasn't as anything solid._

_To his amazement, Hattori's head snapped around; he glanced around warily, his eyes pausing as they slid over the spot where Shinichi stood. It seemed that Hattori had heard him—or heard something, at least—but couldn't see him. But still, his reaction said enough._

_Maybe…just maybe…_

_He swallowed hard…and took that last step forward._

_To the outside world, Hattori Heiji suddenly jerked back, his eyes wide and startled for just a moment before he fell to his knees and slumped forward, leaning against the wall for support. He didn't hear the cries of alarm from the officers and detectives around him._

_But there was something far more interesting going on somewhere else…_

_**-o-**_

Heiji was stunned. "Kudo? What the hell is going on?" He was probably justified in being startled, though. He'd suddenly found himself surrounded by darkness, unable to ascertain where he was, and, most shockingly of all, he was staring directly into the face of Kudo Shinichi, his friendly rival.

In his true body, no less.

"Hattori, I need your help—please, there isn't much time," Kudo said shortly. "I can't do this alone." A thin trickle of blood was working its way down one pale cheek; he was injured. There was none of the cockiness, the confidence of the once-shrunken detective that Heiji had come to know and work with so many times. There was terror and desperation. He wasn't just asking for help, a remarkable occurrence in and of itself; Kudo was _begging_.

"Where are we?"

"We're inside your mind…" Shinichi answered, his voice trembling. "Please—help me."

"What can I do?" Heiji asked frantically. "I don't know where you are!"

"No…but I do," Shinichi said. "Please, Hattori…I think I'm dying…"

That was enough for Heiji—he would have helped without that last, but it was enough to silence any and all further discussion of what in the world was going on. Heiji held up a hand to silence the Tokyo tantei. "What do I have to do?"

Shinichi actually smiled, in spite of the fact that he seemed to be in pain. "Let go for a minute…"

_**-o-**_

_A feeling enveloped Heiji, like lead pouring into his limbs to immobilize them. Something was filling him up, from the soles of his feet and working its way up to the top of his head. He wasn't afraid, and it didn't hurt—it just felt very strange._

_For a moment, he wondered what exactly was happening. _

_And then he understood, and he smiled and let it happen. He curled up and allowed himself to be gently pushed aside. Right now, there were more important things to worry about than his own comfort. _

_He waited, and he listened in anticipation of the bombshell that was about to hit… _

**_-o- _**

"Hattori-kun!" Takagi was shaking the young man, trying to wake him up. "Hattori-kun!"

Behind him, the other adults were growing antsy. Megure had a radio in his hand and was about to call for an ambulance when Heiji groaned and shifted ever so slightly; his head lulled to hang limply in against his chest, hiding his face from view. But the sigh of relief trailed off when something hit the ground in front of the teenager.

A tiny red droplet of something. It almost looked like blood…

It was joined by another, and another. Takagi was closest; he could see quite plainly that the blood was actually falling from…Hattori-kun? It seemed to be dripping off his forehead, like he was injured. But he'd been standing up a mere moment before, absolutely fine. Takagi stood up and instinctively took a step back. What in the world…

Heiji groaned again, and spoke without lifting his head…but the voice that echoed from his mouth was most decidedly not his. It was hollow, higher in pitch, and held no trace of the thick Osakan accent that was one of his trademarks. But the words that came out were as plain as day.

_"Help me…" _

When he lifted his head, it was confirmed that something was wrong. There was a deep cut marring his forehead where that had been nothing before; that accounted for the dripping blood, as there was a thick red line tracing down the side of his face, past his eye—and that was perhaps the most glaringly wrong thing there. Rather than their usual vivid green…

His eyes were a cerulean blue, wide and staring and absolutely terrified.

**_-o- _**

_It felt so different. _

_All things considered, this should have been more comfortable to him. In terms of height, weight, and the like, this was much closer to his true size. But it wasn't his own body, it was the body of another—one who had been kind enough to give him that help in his darkest hour. _

_He tried to move his arm, and found that it was heavier than he was used to. That shouldn't have surprised him, though—Hattori was a prodigy at kendo. He'd probably been working with a katana since his hands were strong enough to hold one. His strength was in his swing as Shinichi's own was in his kick. Another random paradox between the two—Hattori's fiery temper and goofy nature were at odds with his level-headedness and more sarcastic temperament. _

_Yet they got along. They really did compliment each other, like two halves of a whole. _

_He spoke through Hattori's voice; it was as alien to him as the body, but it got the message across. He watched through Hattori's eyes as everyone heard him and reacted in horror and disbelief and a whole gambit of other emotions and responses. _

_It would have been amusing if the situation wasn't so awful. _

_He rushed—it was getting hard to breathe—he felt a weight on his chest, leaving him to wonder what exactly Gin was doing to him—and there was no way he was going to let Hattori get hurt like this for his sorry sake. He had to hurry. But still, he couldn't help but scream out loud when something reverberated down the shimmering thread that connected him to his own self and surged through the borrowed body, twisting it in agony… _

**_-o- _**

"Who are you?" Satou asked. "What happened to Hattori-kun?"

"It's me…" the voice said through Heiji's mouth. It sounded strangled and hoarse. "Kudo…"

The penny dropped, and everyone's jaws dropped along with it. Suddenly, there was no mistaking it. Kudo Shinichi's eyes stared out of Hattori Heiji's face. It was Kudo's voice that echoed hollowly through Hattori's mouth. But the look of terror there…it could have easily been either one.

Megure recovered first, and at a total loss for what else to say, he blurted out, "You. Conan—"

"I'll explain everything later—I promise," he gasped. "But there's no time. It's Gin, he's crazy. Why is it so dark…I can't breathe…" One hand clutched at the front of his shirt, and his breath was coming in ragged gasps. "He wants to know…"

"Who? What's happening? Where's Hattori?" Satou demanded, her voice rising in pitch.

"No time! Please, you have to—" His words dropped off into a sudden scream. Not a cry or a shout, but a gut-wrenching shriek of pain that sent a tremor of fear through everyone present to hear it. He hunched forward, face contorting in anguish; his hand flew to his right shoulder, grappling at it desperately as if he could somehow ward off the pain in such a manner. He gasped, choked, "Oh God…there's no time left. He'll kill me…he's going to kill me…because I know…"

"Who? WHO?" the response was a cacophony of different voices, all asking the same question.

A single tear of pain and despair escaped and slid down his face, mingling with the line of blood there. "Please…find me. Help me…please…" That seemed to exhaust him; his strength spent, the teenager slumped forward, his head lulling down once again, and fell silent.

**_-o- _**

_It was so strange, Heiji reflected, to be a sort of prisoner in the back of his own mind; it felt like he was floating in water, without any real desire or ability to move. He was watching through his own eyes as they were used by another, hearing his voice speak without the accent—Kudo couldn't have mimicked Kansai-ben to save his soul…he cringed to himself at the unintentional parallel. _

_He waited and listened with ears that were no longer his own as the message was delivered. _

_As the pain lanced through him, something broke, and he was awash in a wave of…something. Something powerful and overwhelming that swept him up in its currents and sought to drag him down into the blackest depths of himself. He gasped and struggled against it, trying to swim upstream. _

_Anger. _

_Terror. _

_Regret. _

_Despair. _

_Loneliness. _

_And every variant thereon, plus a million other things. _

_They were tearing him apart, pulling him into shreds. But it wasn't until his head finally slipped underwater that he realized what it actually was. And the dawn of comprehension brought the alien feeling of tears to his nonexistent eyes. _

_This was how Kudo felt—his situation, the prison of his body. The curse that had let him survive. _

_Those were the feelings that lay buried deep in his chest, the ones he never showed to anybody, and perhaps wasn't even aware of himself. Weakness was not a word in Kudo Shinichi's vocabulary. He swallowed his complaints, and he kept on going, come hell or high water. _

_And with it all came a flash, an image moving in front of his eyes. A hallway. A specific wall. A secret switch. A door. A room made of rough stone, the contents of which were enough to make him recoil in disgust. A man there, gloating and exacting such cruelty. A helpless victim on the floor… _

_He felt the heaviness lift, and slid back into his own body. The "intruder" was leaving, and with him went the tsunami of terror; his body was his again. Still, something in him echoed, hollow and painful, and what he had just experienced. _

_How had Kudo lived with that for all this time? _

**_-o- _**

"Hattori-kun?" Takagi was shaking him again.

Suddenly, Heiji snapped upright with a sharp gasp. He stared around in shock for a moment, his eyes—green once again—wide and alarmed. He bore no signs of injury, only confusion and horror.

"Ha—" Megure started to address the young man, but Heiji wasn't waiting around. He was on his feet and sprinting past them at top speed before anyone could react to stop him. He still felt dizzy and a little sick, but there were more important things at stake.

He heard footsteps rushing behind him; they were following him now. Good—because he knew where they were going. He knew where Kudo was…because Kudo had shown him the way there. And damned if he wasn't going to do everything he could.

He had to get there in time. He just had to.

And then there it was—the wall with that specific molding running around it. He'd seen this place, buried deep within the joining of two minds. His hands immediately started tracing the molding for that switch—it was here somewhere, it just had to be…he heard the police coming, calling his name.

And then…

_CLICK. _

The wall swung open, revealing a short hallway leading to a door—another recognizable landmark. Heiji ran to it, and without waiting for anyone to catch up, he kicked the door open. It was unlocked, whether by luck or something far more supernatural, and slammed open. He stormed into the stone room that lay beyond, his only thought to get there before it was too late; the police, Shiratori in the lead, sprinted in behind him.

He already knew, to a certain extent, what he would see.

The blonde man—who Heiji knew to be Gin—whirled around; his eyes were wide, his smile deranged. There was a fire poker in his hand, smoke rising from the tip, obviously only one of the many toys scattered around the stone room. But the most horrifying, damning part of the scene was the small figure crumpled on the ground in front of him; Gin's shoe was on the small back, pressing the form cruelly against the floor…

Conan.

Kudo.

One and the same.

Gin was obviously past the point of reason; he charged, weapon raised to strike at whoever had the misfortune to be in the path of the blow. A single shot was fired, and the man in black jerked and dropped to the ground, clutching at his shoulder with one gloved hand. The poker clattered noisily to the floor beside him and rolled out of his reach. In short order, he found himself surrounded and under arrest by a small squad of furious police officers.

Heiji, however, sprinted straight past Gin and slid to his knees on the floor beside the unmoving figure. "Kudo?" he called out to his fallen friend. "Kudo? C'mon, man, wake up!"

He was rewarded when one blue eye opened briefly and looked at him before sliding shut again. And the thin, childish voice murmured at him, telling him everything he needed to know. "He wanted Sherry…" The words trailed off as he lulled back into unconsciousness, where he couldn't feel anything.

Someone behind him called that there was an ambulance on the way. He nodded and turned his attention back to Kudo, taking a quick inventory of the injuries he could see. The faux-child was breathing, first of all—and given the circumstances, that seemed no small blessing.

Just from what he could see, there were a myriad of injuries: various bruises and scrapes and some frightening cuts, including a particularly deep one on his forehead—there was a startling amount of blood on the floor around him—and one leg, bound in front of him, was lying at a disturbing angle—broken.

But what alarmed him the most of the visible injuries was a bad burn he could see on the child's right shoulder. It stood out so painfully, seared right through the thin fabric of his T-shirt to mar the skin there. It was a long, thin burn, too. Heiji glanced over his own shoulder at the fire poker lying innocently on the stone floor.

No mystery there as to what had caused Kudo's injury—it was right in front of him. But to be injured like that—tormented. Tortured. Heiji felt sick at the idea of it all. It was no wonder Kudo had been desperate enough to…

The paramedics had arrived in record time, spurned on by Satou-keiji chasing them down the hall, screaming for them to hurry. Heiji quickly moved out of their way and let them do their work. As he stepped back, though, he heard something crunch; he glanced down, and saw broken glasses beneath his shoe. He found himself staring at them, the innocuous lenses that had ended up leading them to Kudo.

A hand on his shoulder—the portly Inspector, he realized quickly—pulled him away from the pieces of broken plastic and glass. They stood by the door and watched as the child was moved onto the waiting stretcher. When he was rolled over, far more brutalities became evident. Heiji felt sick.

"Hattori-kun, how did you know where to find him?" Megure-keibu asked quietly as the paramedics passed them with their small charge on the stretcher between them. So many visible injuries, the worst being that awful burn on his shoulder…it would take a long time to heal in so many ways.

Not merely the physical.

"He…he told me," Heiji said, rubbing at his arm.

The Inspector paused before he spoke again. "Are you all right?"

Heiji was silent for a moment. "Did you see that burn?"

Megure nodded.

"Satou said I screamed while…it was happening. Like I was in serious pain." He said 'I' though it really hadn't been—he knew that, and he understood it, even if no one else could grasp what had happened.

"You did."

Heiji reached up and pulled at the neckline of his shirt, tugging it over enough to bare his skin, the spot he'd grabbed during that moment when he'd seemed to be in such agony. And no one quite knew what to say to the sizable mark on his right shoulder—the same size, shape, and placement as Kudo's.

Red, as though he'd been burned.

* * *

**PS.** _This one has been bothering me for quite some time. Throughout the Conan series, Heiji has on a few occasions shown some sign of perhaps minor psychic abilities (dreams of foresight, etc.) And hence, a strange idea was born. I hope you enjoyed it—and lots of love to **SoulSeeker** for beta-ing this and making sure it did not suck._

**_Jeva_**_, this is for you because first of all, you and your vampire Death Fics own approximately sixty percent of my soul. **And secondly (and more importantly), I promised you a birthday fic, didn't I? Whether you want one or not :D** Since you seemed so intrigued by this idea, I give it you with a smile and a big Happy Birthday! Cheers! _

_Thanks for reading and reviewing, all. Much love! _


	6. Party Time

**Title: **Party Time  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#11—a night in  
**Rating:** PG-13 (for talk only)  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **The girls were going to a party where no boys were allowed.

**---**

The girls had gone out for the night. Translation? The boys had stayed in.

Ran and Kazuha had been looking forward to this party for a few weeks now; it was actually Ran who had invited the Osakan girl to go with her. They'd been on the phone about it every waking moment (or so it seemed to the boys), and finally, Kazuha made her way to Tokyo to go with Ran. Heiji had tagged along to keep Kudo company.

Hey, what were friends for?

The two young men had been left to their own devices. So they opted to stay in and try to find something of interest on TV. Finally, they located a soccer game and agreed that it was the best option. Especially when compared to the five seconds they'd watched of that one American cartoon show; all that had done was convince the teenaged detectives that Americans were, in fact, very strange.

What was it with the sponge…and the square pants?

The conversation was relatively light, over the usual topics. School, their sports of choice (kendo and soccer), their latest cases, and most of all, girls and the annoyances thereof. That particular thread of discussion far outlasted the others, and eventually led to a question that neither had dared ask until…

"So what exactly is this party they're going to?" Shinichi asked as a commercial flashed onto the screen. "Ran said it was called a 'passion party.' But she wouldn't tell me anything else about it."

"I was hoping you knew!" Heiji exploded. "Kazuha's the same way. She keeps blabbering about how excited she is and how much fun this is going to be and on and on…and then says that I don't need to know what it is. Something about it being a 'girl thing.'" He accented that by doing finger-quotes in the air as he spoke.

"…now, common sense says that anything qualified as a 'girl thing,'" Shinichi imitated the hand gesture, "should be looked upon as extremely dangerous. But…dammit, I'm curious!" He flopped back against his chair in a full-fledged pout, the likes of which hadn't been seen since his Conan days.

"A passion party…" Heiji leaned back and thought. "Passion fruit?"

Shinichi snorted a laugh. "They like to cook, and they went to try some new fruits! That's…well, I don't know if it's a girl thing, but it's definitely not anything we can do. "Or maybe…the Passion? Did you ever read anything about world religions?"

"That's Christianity, right?"

"Yeah."

"…somehow, I don't think that's what it is. But it was a good thought," Heiji nodded.

"Maybe passion tea?" Shinichi tried again. "A tea party? Or a tea house?"

"Hmmm…but why couldn't we go to that?" Heiji countered; then his expression suddenly grew wide-eyed and alarmed. "Kudo…what if it's actually _passion_ passion. Like, a dating service or something."

Shinichi shook his head. "No way—they've got us, remember?"

"But then why so secretive? Why is it girls only?" Heiji ticked the various points off on his fingers as he listed them. "There has to be a reason why they won't tell us where they're going and what it's all about! Except," he sat back, "Kazuha wouldn't do that."

"Ran wouldn't either," Shinichi sighed. "Let's just wait until they get home. Then we'll beg."

Four and a half eternities later, the front door finally opened. "We're home!" Ran's voice cheered. A moment later, she and Kazuha appeared in the kitchen doorway, each holding a small plastic bag. "Sorry we're a little late, guys!"

Shinichi managed a smile. "I take it you had fun?"

"We had a blast!" Kazuha chirped. Then she noticed Heiji's look. "What?"

"Nothing," he replied—a little too quickly. She raised an eyebrow.

Shinichi came to the rescue. "We were just kind of wondering what exactly a passion party is." His words were calm, but his tone was more of a _Pleeeeease tell us because we're going crazy here!_

Ran smiled sweetly. "Didn't we tell you?"

Both boys shook their heads.

The girls smiled. Evilly. "Fifty girls getting together to talk about sex and all the things that go along with it," Kazuha replied.

Two male jaws dropped down through the table top and onto the floor.

"You went to a party…about sex?" Shinichi repeated.

"Yup!" Ran said. "C'mon, Kazuha-chan—let's go look at our new stuff." They started towards the stairs, but were stopped when one of the guys called out to them.

"Kazuha?" Heiji asked in a strangled voice.

"Yes?"

"…what's in the bag?"

"Batteries."

Kazuha smiling response would haunt Heiji's most colorful dreams for the next month. It left him in a silent, vacant-eyed, hormone-ridden state that he would not recover from for at least an hour. The only thing that saved Shinichi from the same fate was the fact that Ran, standing beside Kazuha, reached into her own bag and proved that all it held were some pamphlets. Still, the effect was funny either way.

Ran giggled.

Kazuha smirked.

Shinichi snorted.

Heiji drooled.

And there was much rejoicing.

**---**

**PS.** _So…yeah. The plunnies are eating my brain. With tartar sauce. So I send this out to **sapphirestars**, who finally said, "Just write this idea!" So…I did. Another short one. Also, props to **SoulSeeker**, who has been slaving over summer homework. Smile, sweetie! I broke Heiji for you!_

_For those of you who have never been to a passion party, they are insanely fun if you're okay with very open, blunt discussions about sex and toys and all that fun stuff—but no boys allowed! Kazuha's ending comment is quasi-based on a true story, in which a complete stranger thought that my former best friend and I were a couple._

…_and based on my own passion party experience, I could not resist. Mention of, ahem, toys._

**---**

The speaker was talking about toys—a specific type of them. She had examples, and was explaining to the ladies at the passion party about all the different options they would have if they chose to invest in such an item. "You can also find ones with lights on them—why you'd need a flashlight down there is beyond me, it's pretty hard to get lost! They come in all different colors, sizes…I'm sure they even have ones that play music!"

Kazuha didn't mean to do it. She really didn't. But it popped out before she could help herself or even realize what she was doing. She opened her mouth and started to sing. "O come, all ye faithful…"

Beside her, Ran choked on her drink.

**---**

…_yes, that was me who did that. And yes, Jen choked. Anyhoo, thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	7. The Art of Giving

**Title: **The Art of Giving  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#18—some advice  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Give her something she can hit you with. She'll really like that!

* * *

When his cell phone rang, Shinichi flipped it open and balanced it between his shoulder and his cheek without even bothering to look at the screen and see who it was. Without taking his eyes from the book in his lap, he automatically intoned, "Kudo." 

"…you're reading, aren't you?"

He chuckled at the heavily-accented voice on the other end. "You're getting better, Hattori." He marked his page, closed his book, and set it aside to focus. "So what's up? Any good cases?"

"That's not what I'm calling about."

Shinichi actually paused at that. Hattori…not calling to babble about a case?

Whoa.

"Then what do you need?"

Hattori wavered, then sighed. "I need some advice."

"Okay." Shinichi could already guess that this somehow involved Kazuha.

"It's about Kazuha."

Bingo! "What about her?"

"…well, I've got two days to figure out what I'm getting her."

It took Shinichi a second to remember that it was almost White Day. "You don't know yet?"

"No!" Judging by the background noise, Hattori was pacing as he spoke. "She gave me chocolate for Valentine's Day, and it was actually edible—even though she made it herself—so I need to get her something. And if it's not good, she'll kill me."

"I'd say that's true."

"So what should I get her?"

Shinichi thought a moment. "Something she can hit you with? That'll make her really happy."

"…die."

"I'm just kidding. Now what does she like?"

"Aikido. Cooking. Arguing with me. Being stupid. Yelling at me."

"So give her something that has to do with something she likes."

There was a pause on Heiji's end. "How in the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"Hattori, she's your girlfriend—you know her better than I do."

"She's not my—oh wait…yeah, she is now," Heiji remembered belatedly.

Shinichi actually felt a twinge of compassion for that. "It takes some getting used to, doesn't it?"

"It really does. So what are you giving Neechan?"

"The usual—flowers, chocolates…and this really cute teddy bear that I know she'll just love."

Heiji sighed. "Knowing me, I'd probably manage to pick the one type of flower she's allergic to."

"Look, Hattori," Shinichi leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes in thought. "I'm getting Ran flowers because I asked her if there was anything special she wanted, and that's what she said. I'm throwing in the chocolate and teddy bear because I know she likes that. But something tells me you don't want to ask her—especially not this late in the game."

"She'd get mad. It's not like I haven't been thinking about it, though…"

"I know," Shinichi said. "But the art of giving is finding a gift that you know the person will love. It doesn't always have to be big or fancy or expensive—sometimes, the best things are homemade."

"Homemade…" Hattori murmured.

"Maybe something for her aikido?" Shinichi suggested.

"…actually, I think I have an idea," Heiji said slowly. "Thanks, man. You're a pal."

_**-o-**_

Two days later, Ran was pleasantly surprised when she became the recipient of the traditional gifts: flowers, chocolates, and a particularly adorable teddy bear that earned Shinichi a big kiss. He then blushed profusely and walked into the wall.

When Kazuha opened her White Day present, however, she found a few slips of paper. Upon further inspection, they proved to be handmade coupons, good for things such as "_Good for one free punch to the nose—I won't run"_ and "_Good for one day of carrying your books"_ and "_Good for one hour of insults."_ She recognized the crude artwork as Heiji's.

Quite frankly, it was one of the nicest presents Kazuha had ever gotten.

It was just the thing for their kind of relationship.

* * *

**PS.** …_is anyone still reading this? NO I TOTALLY DID NOT FORGET ABOUT THIS AND NEGLECT IT IN FAVOR OF MY OTHER CHALLENGES AND LIFE TOTALLY WASN'T STABBING ME IN THE NECK WITH A MECHANICAL PENCIL FOR TWO MONTHS STRAIGHT…so that's my excuse._

_One of my little contributions to this…joyful holiday._ _So Happy National Make Single People Feel Like Crap…I mean, Valentine's Day, everyone! Thanks for reading! Much love!_


	8. Whoops!

**Title: **Whoops!  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#1—platonic love  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Everything happened at just the right time for the worst possible results.

* * *

It was a lovely day in Tokyo, and the vocabulary screeching from the windows of the Mouri residence was enough to melt the tar on the street. The Oksakan duo had come for a visit, and they were busily in the midst of one of their infamous arguments. It would have been almost poetic, if it hadn't been turning the air any number of colors in the process.

While Heiji and Kazuha verbally went at it, Ran and Shinichi were relaxing and enjoying the show. Really—you would usually have to pay for this caliber of entertainment!

…and then the status quo shifted. A series of seemingly innocent events happened, all in collaboration at just the write time to bring about the worst possible results.

Shinichi had just gotten up to go get some popcorn (every good show needed munchies, right?) right as Heiji roared something regarding Kazuha, a sea anemone, and their relative intelligences before he turned to storm away. Kazuha reached out angrily and gave him a little shove on the back…just as his foot caught on the corner of the rug. Heiji pitched forward…and crashed right into Shinichi…

And they both crashed back to the couch, lips pressed firmly together.

Ran gasped and clasped a hand over her own mouth.

Kazuha's jaw dropped.

Shinichi's eyes quadrupled in size.

Heiji made a muffled "HMPH?" sound.

And then all hell broke loose.

Heiji had landed sort of half-sprawled across Shinichi's lap. He pushed away from the couch and vaulted halfway across the room, gasping and sputtering and choking. Shinichi also jumped to his feet and moved in the opposite direction with both of his hands clapped protectively over his mouth. Both were making various noises of disgust.

"God, Kazuha! What the hell were you doing?" Heiji shouted. "That was revolting!"

"I'm as sick as you are!" Shinichi said in reply, flailing. "You're like a brother to me, but NO!"

The girls, meanwhile, were laughing their heads off.

"Ran…" Shinichi half-whined, giving her a pouty look. "Is there any mouthwash upstairs?"

She wiped away tears of laughter and nodded. "In the medicine cabinet."

As Shinichi headed towards the door—taking the path that skirted as far around Hattori as possible—Heiji called out to him. "Kudo? No offense or anything, but…no eye contact for a while."

"Got it."

* * *

**PS.** _Jeva, you brat! This is all your fault! And I do say that with love. Ayiyiyi…I love how this goes with the theme, though. Yay for things working! And why yes, I am posting on this challenge again, and it hasn't been nine months! Who woulda thunkit? Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	9. Turnabout is Fair Play

**Title: **Turnabout is Fair Play  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#23—fair trade  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Conan can be vicious when he's annoyed. Just a warning.

* * *

Sometimes, Hattori was just annoying. Normally, this was relatively tolerable—they would talk, discuss things, argue a bit, and so forth, business as usual, all was well. But for some reason today Conan just couldn't stand it.

Maybe it was Hattori's current choice of conversation topic (although conversation was really a loose term, as the Osakan teenager was doing most of the talking). Namely, Ran. Hattori was in the mood to heckle, and so he was giving him crap. And Conan was about to explode.

Finally, the shrunken detective lowered his copy of _The Sign of Four_ and glowered at his friend over the top of the book's pages. "Shut. Up."

Hattori grinned, obviously proud of having finally gotten a reaction. "He's conscious!"

Conan set his book aside and fixed his taller friend with the kind of look that could probably kill small animals. "Hattori, knock it off. Or I will make you sorry."

"Oh?" Heiji looked rather smug. "And what're you gonna do to me?"

One small hand fished into a sweatshirt pocket and withdrew a cell phone. He pushed a few buttons before he held it up to allow his friend a view of the screen. "Do you recognize this number?"

Heiji looked at it; his eyes widened. "That's Kazuha's cell phone number."

"Correct."

"How did you—"

"She gave it to me—just in case Heiji-niichan started picking on me. I'm supposed to call her, and she'll put a stop to it. Now," Conan smirked, "listen to my voice. Tell me what's different about it."

Hattori frowned. "You actually learned how to do Osaka-ben right?"

"Yes. And when put with this," he lifted his voice changing bow tie and spoke in that same accent, "it's pretty convincing, ain't it?" To a person on the other end of a phone line, there would have been almost no way to distinguish the voice in the voice changer from Heiji's own true voice.

Hattori was starting to look very alarmed.

"Now, detective, put the pieces together," Conan, on the other hand, seemed very pleased with himself. "I can mimic your voice, and I have your not-girlfriend's cell number. What do you think?"

"…bastard," Heiji glared.

"You keep giving me crap about not calling Ran enough," Conan picked up his book and resumed his reading, feeling much better about the whole situation. "Turnabout is fair play."

* * *

**PS.** _This is another one of those scenes that's been bouncing around in my head for ages. So I finally decided to just write it down and put it to good use. It makes me smile—and I really don't know what Conan would say to Kazuha. He might make her angry…or he might profess his undying love. No clue! But that's okay. Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	10. Silver Lining

**Title: **Silver Lining  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#29—silver lining  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **You know…I remember when Agasa called us and told us that you'd found Shinichi out.

* * *

Hospitals were horrible places to wait—especially considering what a person in a hospital waiting room would probably be waiting for.

Heiji hadn't moved from that chair in over an hour. Heck, he'd barely moved, period. He just stared off vacantly into space, waiting for an answer that was in no real hurry to come forth. It had been a very…eventful night, to say the least. And it wasn't over yet.

So Heiji just sat, sat and waited to find out if this nightmare was over or just getting started.

He was so out of it that he didn't notice anyone approaching him or standing there, looking down at him. He was unaware of the presence until a hand touched his shoulder. He jumped a foot out of his seat before looking up at his newly-arrived company.

Kudo Yukiko was watching him with a sad smile and even sadder eyes. She gestured to the empty seat behind him. "Mind if I join you?"

He shook his head. That chair had been vacant for quite a while, since Kazuha had gone off to make sure Neechan was all right. He privately thought that it was a wise decision on the ahou's part. When the woman was seated, he asked, "Any word?" She would be more privy to that than he would, given that she was not mere family, but Kudo's mother.

She shook her head, dashing his hopes. "Nothing yet," she replied. "I just know that he's still in surgery. Yuusaku is talking to the police, trying to explain the whole situation to them. Hopefully Megure-keibu will understand—I still don't know if Megure was more angry over being lied to or over what was happening right in front of him, but hopefully seeing what he saw tonight will help. Then when Shinichi wakes up, it'll be a lot easier for him." She seemed far too calm—either she truly believed that her son would be perfectly fine (as her words implied), or she was just keeping herself clamped down tightly enough to present that serene front. There were certainly none of her usual dramatics.

Heiji nodded. That meant more waiting to find out if one of his best friends was going to live or die. He turned his head to look straight ahead and sighed. This was not a good night.

Yukiko was silent for a moment before she spoke again. "You know…I remember when Agasa-hakase called and told us that you'd found Shinichi out." She was referring to her son by his true name, rather than the childish nickname. That had to signify something—though he wasn't totally sure what. But she was going on. "To be honest…I was fairly worried."

He listened silently, rather startled.

"I'm sure you can understand my concern—I'm his mother," she continued. "No mother wants to see anything happen to her child. And Shinichi's life depended on secrecy—if no one found out, then there was no chance of something slipping to the wrong person. But you did find out. You put it together, even though you barely knew him. You had met him once, and not under circumstances where you could actually get to know him, from what I've been told. If you could figure it out like that, who was to say that someone else couldn't? And just knowing that someone had found out…" she sighed. "Despite Hakase's reassurances that you had sworn to secrecy, it still didn't sit to well with me."

Heiji remembered that night all too well—two murders at a gathering of Sherlock Holmes fanatics. Coming there to try and meet up with Kudo, and being shocked when the Tokyo tantei didn't show. Being suspicious of a small boy who seemed to know far too much about what was going on.

In the end, a sleeping dart to the neck and a really bad Osakan accent were all it took to blow Kudo's cover sky-high in his eyes. In some ways, he couldn't understand how no one had noticed. And it had taken so little to make the poor guy crack. It was…well, what he had done could technically be called blackmail, he supposed. But it had worked! And he had…

He had gotten sucked into the case of a lifetime.

He had seen things that he had never thought could exist, even in his darkest nightmares.

And he had gained a friend.

…what had Kudo thought about all this? It really hadn't occurred to him to wonder about that. Did Kudo feel like he'd gained a friend? He knew the pint-sized detective had been rather miffed about being found out, but they were friends, weren't they? Did Kudo value that friendship as much as Heiji had come to?

"But after meeting you," Yukiko said, interrupting his thoughts, "And seeing how you and Shinichi acted around each other, I realized that I didn't have anything to worry about."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Shinichi…he's so brilliant, most people can't keep up with him. They tend to be rather in awe of him, and he thrives on that. But when this all happened, I think it shook him a lot more than he let on. He's too proud to admit things like that—takes after his father in that regard," she managed a dry smile at that, though her tone of voice was both sad and affectionate as she spoke of her son. "He hates to ask for help, even when he needs it." She paused and glanced over towards the double doors; still no sign of news. "But who does he have to turn to? Yuusaku and I are half a world away, so we can't do much. And Agasa-hakase is wonderful, but…he's quite a bit older than Shinichi. So while he can be a good ear and confidante and offer excellent advice on some things…there are other things he just can't understand or relate to, you know?"

Heiji nodded.

"But you…" Yukiko turned to look at him full-on for the first time since the conversation had started. "You're the same age as Shinichi, with some of the same interests…you can relate to him, understand some of the things he's going through…even though I don't think any of us can really understand what it feels like to be shrunk like that. But I think you were a bigger help to him than either of you realized, and not just on cases. Having someone to argue with and debate with and discuss things with and just be himself around…someone to be a real friend—a friend to Shinichi, not Conan—while he muddled through all of this." She paused, and gave him a real smile. "I guess what I'm trying to say is…thank you. Thank you for being there for Shinichi. Thank you for helping to keep him sound and sane while he tries so hard to take the weight of the world on his shoulders. I was worried, but I think that particular cloud had a silver lining."

Heiji stared at her for a moment in shock. Then slowly, he smiled as the doctor finally appeared with news about Shinichi, and they rushed to find out what had befallen him.

The waiting was over.

What was still to come…who could say?

* * *

**PS.** _Wow…when I was writing this, I didn't realize it would end up with so many loooooong paragaphs. Most of them Yukiko talking, of all things! Before anyone decides to clobber me, I fully endorse that Yukiko is extremely intelligent and worries about her son a great deal. So I believe this to be in character. And lo, it was the tenth Friends fic! And Shinichi didn't actually appear in it! WHOO!_

_This is sort of my way of putting out there a person character theory of mine—that Heiji is, in some ways, a sanity saver for Shinichi. They act like brothers, and I think Heiji's cheerful, reckless way of doing things is a good balance to our more serious main character, to say nothing of being a good influence._

_L'anyhoodle, thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	11. Waking Up

**Title: **Waking Up  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#15—comfortable silence  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Don't you ever do that again. EVER.

* * *

When Shinichi opened his eyes, he recognized that he was in a hospital room. And he also recognized that he was in a strange physical state: he was in pain, but everything was sort of…fuzzy. He quickly took that to meant that something had happened that had left him injured, and the haze was from some sort of painkillers.

Now if those weird pink hippos would stop dancing around his bed, he could focus on trying to remember what exactly had happened to land him in the hospital in the first place.

After a few minutes, the world started to come back into focus. It still hurt a fair amount, but he found he could sit up and look around without too much difficulty. The room was silent, tempered only by the muffled sound of movement in the corridor beyond the closed room and the beeping of the various machines and monitors hooked up to him. And he still couldn't quite remember what had happened to him—he hurt, and there was a bandage wrapped around his head. He was still stuck in his seven-year-old body…but that was all he definitively had at the moment.

He knew it had something to do with Gin and the Syndicate…but beyond that, he was drawing a fuzzy blank. He assumed that whatever it was that had befallen him, it was nothing he was intended to survive. Hence, he was in the hospital, drugged up on so many painkillers that when he woke up, he was incapable of counting to one.

Maybe he would remember more later, once his head cleared a bit more. He had heard of cases where victims of violent crimes had blocked out details for weeks, months, even years before suddenly remembering important details. He also knew of cases where victims had remembered nothing upon waking from their ordeal, but gradually recovered their memories over the following days.

The human mind was a wondrous thing.

He looked down…and found that he was not alone in the room. That alone was enough to startle him; he was usually very acute about knowing when there was someone in his vicinity. He had a sixth sense that usually told him when he was being watched. So to look down and see Hattori there…well, it was a bit of a surprise.

Even more surprising was the fact that Hattori was sound asleep. He was sitting in a chair beside the bed, with his arms resting on the edge of the bed and his head pillowed on his arms. Shinichi sat there for a moment and just studied his friend. There were a few signs that suggested that Heiji had been there for quite a while.

And then, as if he felt Shinichi's scrutiny, Heiji opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around, blinking owlishly as he tried to clear his eyes. Finally, he focused in on the small form sitting in the bed, and his expression went from confused to relieved. "You're awake. 'Bout damn time."

Shinichi managed a smile. "Sorry. What's going on?"

Heiji sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You never do anything by halves, do you? Man…we didn't think you were gonna make it for a while there. But what happened…let's see…" He started tallying points off on his fingers as he said them out loud. "You nearly died, we arrested about half a dozen of the MiB—including your old buddy Gin. Your secret is out—all the important people know. Your dad was talking to Megure last night to try and iron out a few details, so hopefully no one's going to be going for your throat now."

Shinichi winced.

Hattori chuckled. "Yeah—old man Mouri was pretty pissed off…but I think he's calmed down now. Your mom and Neechan are at the agency, getting some sleep. Kazuha's been keeping an eye on Neechan. The police have been in and out since last night." He turned a measuring eye on the miniature detective. "You've got a lotta people really worried about you, ya know that?"

"What happened to me?" Shinichi asked. "I…can't remember. I mean, I know the men in black were there, but…no details." He did know now, however, that his initial assumption had been correct: he had been seriously injured, nearly to the point of death, and that was why he was in the hospital, in pain, and loaded up on enough drugs to make Keith Richards flinch.

Heiji looked uncomfortable. "Short version? You got shot. Twice. Once in the side—that's the one that nearly killed you. It didn't hit anything vital, but you lost a lot of blood. And then the other one…pretty much bounced off the side of your head. I'm not sure how it missed you. You got really lucky."

"…wow."

"Yeah," Heiji nodded. "I claimed guard duty in here, though. I promised everyone I'd tell them right away when you woke up. But…I figure it's okay if I take a couple minutes and fill you in on the major details. So you're not going to get killed by any of your friends or the police—but they know you're you. That's the biggest thing."

"Okay," Shinichi sighed. No matter which way he looked at it, this was going to be complicated. There were a lot of people who deserved explanation…and at the top of his list was the one person he was almost afraid to ask about. But he swallowed hard and opened his mouth. "Hattori…how does Ran—I mean, is she…?"

Heiji smiled slightly. "She cried. A lot. But she doesn't hate you—she does want to have a 'little chat' with you when you wake up—direct quote. We had to force her to go home and get some sleep. When she left, she told me to call her in exactly four hours to wake her up so she could come back, or else she would go karate on me."

"…how long ago was that?"

"Hmm, about seven hours."

"You're a dead man, you know that?"

"Eh, could be worse."

Silence lapsed again for a moment; neither felt the need to immediately fill it.

Finally, Heiji spoke up. "Kudo, I want you to promise me something."

"What?"

The look Heiji turned on him was quite possibly the most intense one he had ever gotten from his Osakan friend. "Don't you ever do that again. EVER. Do you understand me?"

Shinichi stared at him for a moment, confused, before he realized what Hattori really meant: _Don't you ever scare me like that again. EVER. _So Hattori had been worried about him, even though it was one of those things he just couldn't come right out and say, for whatever reason—maybe the same inhibition that kept him from voicing certain things regarding Kazuha. Worried enough to stay at his bedside, even to the point of falling asleep there.

And he smiled. "Yes. I understand." He paused, and then added, "Thanks."

* * *

**PS.** _This is a little follow-up to "Silver Lining," the previous fic in this series. A lot of people were very worried about Shinichi and was he okay…so here we go. A little bedside fic to answer your questions. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	12. The Morning After

**Title: **The Morning After  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#16—party!  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Shinichi woke up to a mess and a massive headache. What the heck happened?

* * *

Shinichi felt a little apprehensive about the reported plans for the evening; still, he let Hattori and Kuroba bodily drag him into the club. "Guys, I don't know about this—"

"Relax!" Kuroba cheered. "You're getting married, big guy—and you wouldn't let us throw you a real bachelor party. So you're going to let us take you out on the town instead!" None of them were really big party guys or drinkers, but in honor of the upcoming wedding, Heiji and Kaito had decided that a night of drunken revelry was in order 'before Kudo had someone to answer to,' as Kaito so delicately put it. So they dragged him along for the ride.

No matter what Shinichi had to say about it.

And at first, he did protest. He obligingly downed the first couple of drinks set in front of him. But then Kuroba let it slip to a few bar patrons that Shinichi was due to tie the knot soon, and the entire place got involved—drinks all around, drunken sing-a-longs, and some very, very bad dancing. It wound up being like an unofficial bachelor party of sorts, and by the end of the night, Shinichi had learned a few things.

Number one: he would never be able to drink gin, vodka, or vermouth without gagging and/or having a seizure. Seriously—he tried when someone handed him a screwdriver and mentioned what was in it (orange juice and vodka). Sherry was a sometimes, he decided.

Number two: he really liked rum and coke. REALLY.

Number three: he had a lot of new friends at that bar. And to achieve insanity, just add alcohol.

By the time the three celebrating young men stumbled from the place, it was the wee hours of the morning, and Shinichi was the drunkest of them all. Kuroba (somehow the least intoxicated) pulled out his cell phone and made a call as they loaded into a taxi.

**_-o-_**

When Shinichi woke up the next morning, he felt _awful_.

He was home, in his own bed—with no solid recollection of how he got there—and he had a headache the size of Mount Fuji. His mouth felt like the Sahara Desert had sprung up on his tongue, and he _really_ needed a shower.

It took a few minutes for him to ease out of bed and get on his feet; it took another few seconds before he was able to stand steadily. He stumbled towards the door, but paused at the mirror. He was stunned to see an enormous bruise on his forehead—a huge, ungodly purple blotch right between his eyes.

_…what the hell did I do?_ he wondered as he headed out into the hallway and towards the stairs. On the way down, he noticed a hole in the wall—and not a small hole, either. And finally, when he got downstairs, he glanced into the living room and saw that the coffee table was in little tiny pieces, scattered across the floor.

Now he was alarmed. But his headache needed to be tended to before he could do much more in the way of thinking. So he continued on his way to the kitchen in search of coffee and an ice pack.

Hattori was sitting at the table, digging into a bowl of cereal and staring straight ahead with an even more vacant look in his eyes than was normal. Shinichi belatedly remembered that his Osakan friend was staying with him for a couple of days—Hattori had come down under the pretense of hanging out, which turned out to be a clever ruse in order to kidnap him and drag him off to do some questionable things!

Shinichi hoped that Heiji had as bad a headache as he did. Judging by the look of things, his wish had already been granted five times over. But he felt too crappy to even gloat about it. Instead, he grunted a good morning and plopped down at the table next to Hattori.

Hattori grunted in reply.

After a moment, Shinichi looked blankly at his friend. "What the hell did I do last night?"

"…you don't remember?"

"No."

A pause. Then Heiji said, "…do you really want to know?"

…well, that was ominous. "Yeah. I do."

"Okay…well, we left the bar, and you were hammered," Heiji began, setting his spoon down in his bowl. "While we were getting into the cab, Kuroba made a phone call. We got back to your place, and Neechan was waiting—she was the one he'd called, figuring that you should have someone sober to look after you."

Shinichi winced…which started his head hurting again.

"So Kuroba went on his way, and Neechan hauled you inside. But you didn't want to cooperate. You wound up trying to run—don't know where you were going—and you ran into the living room and tripped and landed on the coffee table. Guess you hit it just right, 'cause the thing went smash."

That explained one thing. "What about the hole in the wall?"

"We were trying to get you up the stairs, and you sorta started flailing, and your foot went through the wall," Heiji explained, pausing to down another mouthful. "Man, you were REALLY gone. Was starting to wonder if you mighta gone a little too far overboard…"

"…the bruise?"

"That's a badge from when you tried to battle the bedroom door," Heiji said. "I think the door won."

"Oh God…"

"Yeah. Neechan was pretty pissed," Heiji went on. "I mean, she was furious—muttered something about how you weren't allowed to turn into her father. But anyway, she got you into the room and tried to get you at least on your bed. She almost got you to lay down, and then you started flailing again, and she wound up getting knocked right on top of you." He took a bite. "On the bed."

"…what happened?" Shinichi had gone absolutely green—both from the hangover and the story.

Heiji took another bite. "You started yelling, 'No way, lady! I'm getting married!'"

Shinichi blinked. "What?"

"Yup," Heiji sat back in his chair. "Neechan said she loves you, she hopes your headache isn't too bad, she loves you again, and she's coming over tonight to make your favorite dinner. Congratulations."

* * *

**PS.** _Inspired by a joke a friend told me. My mental image of the look on Ran's face when Shinichi started yelling that is absolutely priceless, just so you all know. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading, all—much love!_


	13. Impossible Choice

**Title: **Impossible Choice  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#27—practice  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **No matter what he did or what he chose, someone was going to die.

* * *

It was a scene right out of Heiji's worst nightmares.

When he and Kudo had chased the murderer to this abandoned warehouse, he hadn't noticed that Kazuha was trailing after them, even though he had told the ahou to wait for them to come back. It was an oversight that was haunting them now.

He felt like he was in the middle—Kudo was standing next to him, and the killer and Kazuha were in front of him. The madman was holding her in front of him with a knife pressed to her throat, and there was no doubt at all in any of their minds that he would kill her given even the smallest reason to do so.

"Let her go," he growled angrily; his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

The killer smirked over Kazuha's shoulder. "You want to save her?" The knife pressed closer, and Kazuha winced and let out a whimper. She didn't even dare try aikido—given their positioning and his attitude, he would kill her before she could do anything effective.

"Let. Her. Go," Heiji repeated. He felt Kudo tense next to him.

"You want to save her? You want to be a hero, little boy?" he sneered. There was a clattering sound, like something metal hitting the cement floor; the killer had dropped something. "Take that."

Apprehensive but without many options, Heiji obediently knelt down to pick up the item, and shuddered when he realized what it was. The metal of the gun was icy cold against his palm.

The killer spoke again. "Now kill your friend over there."

Heiji's head snapped back to look at the man in horror. He heard Kudo let out a strangled gasp, but kept his attention on their enemy. "What did you say?"

"Kill him, or I kill your little girlfriend here," he sneered.

For once, a "she's not my girlfriend" retort was the farthest thing from Heiji's mind. "But—but—"

"Shoot him in the head, or she dies." The tone suggested that this was an absolute order. No further arguments, and no further questions.

Frozen, Heiji tried desperately to think. No matter what he did right now—no matter what he chose…someone was going to die. One of them wasn't going to walk out of this room alive. The question was who it would be, and by whose hand they would die.

There was no way he could kill anyone. Never. Especially not Kudo—Kudo was one of his best friends, his brother in every respect save for blood. They were partners. They had gone through so much together, chasing murderers, criminals, and of course, the Syndicate. He couldn't kill Kudo.

But…

Kazuha was special to him. They'd shared a playpen. They had been together their entire lives—she knew him inside and out. And he was starting to wonder if maybe there was something more there. He couldn't envision his life without her. He had the power to save her—if he didn't, it would be the same as if he'd cut her throat himself.

…but even if he shot Kudo, there was no guarantee that this guy would let her go. This guy was a sadist, a cold-hearted killer. This could all be one big mind trick. It was all too possible that if he shot Kudo, the murderer would simply kill Kazuha anyway for sheer entertainment, or because she no longer served a purpose to him.

Heiji looked down at the gun in his hand. He didn't know what to do.

"Hattori."

He turned to look at Kudo, who was watching him somberly. "What?"

Kudo swallowed hard, and then said, "…do it."

If someone had walked up and blown on Heiji, he probably would have toppled right over. "What!?"

"Do what he says," Kudo repeated quietly. "It's okay. Just…do it. Get her out of here."

"No…"

"Just do it," Kudo said again.

Heiji looked back and forth between Kazuha and Kudo. Back and forth, back and forth…finally, he closed his eyes…and with a grace that betrayed some practice at such an action, he raised the gun and leveled it at Kudo's head, aiming it right between his eyes.

Shinichi stood perfectly still, barely even breathing.

Heiji's hand was surprisingly steady. He looked Kudo straight in the eye. "I'm sorry…" He cocked the hammer.

Kudo's eyes widened only slightly to betray his own nerves, but otherwise his expression remained level.

"I'm sorry…" Heiji said again. "Because after this moment, I'm no better than they are." Having said that…he whipped around, took his aim, and fired a single shot.

Kazuha let out a small, muffled scream as the madman behind her jerked back, releasing his hold on her. The knife dropped away from her throat as the killer ran into the wall and slid down it to a heap on the floor. Blood ran down his face from the single gunshot wound to the forehead.

For a long moment, none of them moved. Outside, the scream of police sirens came closer. They were almost here, and what a sight they were in for.

It was Heiji who moved first. He lowered his arm to his side, and slid down to his knees. He kept his eyes on the floor, not looking at either of his friends. He did, however, speak in a flat mumble. "The way he was standing…that was the only target. If he wasn't behind her…would've gone for a shoulder or something…"

Kazuha imitated his motion, dropping to the ground and putting her face in her hands before beginning to weep. She stayed there for only a second before crawling across the floor towards him.

Shinichi moved slowly, walking forward and kneeling down beside Heiji. "Hattori?" No response. He looked down, and saw the gun in Heiji's hands. He knew better than most that Hattori didn't always think things through; he tended to act on impulse, and given what had just happened…

Shinichi reached down and took hold of the gun. "Give it to me." He was only mildly surprised when he met some resistance. Hattori wasn't letting go of it, which confirmed Shinichi's dark thoughts. "Hattori. Give me the gun." He pulled again, very carefully, and this time it came out of his hands with no difficulty. Heiji's hands clenched and unclenched, as though they were regretting the decision to let go of the weapon.

Still, as Shinichi sat back and drew the firearm out of reach, Hattori chuckled sadly but did not look at him, instead keeping his eyes firmly on the floor. "Thank you."

* * *

**PS.** _This was not easy to write. I did some major second guessing on my ending, but ultimately decided to go with the original one for the purpose of Shinichi recognizing that letting Heiji hold that gun was a danger to Heiji himself, and so remove the temptation. So I really hope you enjoyed it!_

_Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	14. If Something Should Happen

**Title: **If Something Should Happen  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#22—a favor  
**Rating:** PG (one swear word)  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **He was having one of his moments.

* * *

Kudo was having one of his moments.

It didn't happen too often, to Heiji's knowledge. But every once in a while the shrunken detective would lapse into a melancholy mood. During these times he would sit and brood quietly, usually away from everyone else. Most attempts to socialize with him during these spells were rebuffed.

Heiji stared down at the small form sitting by the window, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs. He looked to be lost in thought; what he was thinking about what really anyone's guess.

"Oi, Kudo?" he said softly, sneaking into the room and closing the door behind him. The faux little boy didn't actively acknowledge the new presence, but there was just the slightest change in posture to betray his awareness. That was encouraging enough for him, and so Heiji moved to sit next to his friend. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

No response.

Any other person would have recognized the rejection and left things at that. But Heiji had never been very good at taking hints. So he stayed right where he was and kept prodding. He knew from experience that if he kept at it long enough, he would get a reaction out of Kudo sooner or later.

And finally, he did. "Would you stop it??" Kudo snapped angrily, giving Heiji a furious look. "Go away!"

Heiji grinned triumphantly at the response. "What's buggin' ya?"

"Nothing."

"I call bullshit," Heiji said bluntly, raising an eyebrow. "You wouldn't be staring out the window like that if everything was so wonderful. Now start talking."

"I'm just thinking."

"Well, don't hurt yourself."

The look 'Conan' gave him then was a glare that no true child could have EVER mustered up. It could have frozen water. But just as quickly, he turned to look back towards the window, and the brief, slightly angry conversation lapsed once again.

As Heiji was pondering what else he could do to break down the little invisible wall between them, Kudo spoke again. "Hey, Hattori…I was wondering if you could do me a favor?"

This seemed promising. "Sure!"

Kudo fidgeted slightly, then said, "If something were to happen—and I don't think it will…I mean, I hope it doesn't, but…" Now he actually looked right at Heiji, something intense and unreadable in blue eyes that were far too tired and sad for a child. "If something happens, can you keep an eye on Ran for me? I mean, just…make sure she's okay? Make sure she's safe?"

So that was it. If something happened to Neechan, Kudo would never forgive himself for it. But if something happened to Kudo, it could very well kill Neechan. Heiji knew it, and Kudo himself probably knew it. But at least Heiji knew _exactly_ why Kudo had been so morose.

Heiji nodded. "It's a promise."

* * *

**PS.** _This fic is number fourteen for this challenge…which means that the next one will be the halfway point! WHOO!! Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	15. Lost

**Title: **Lost  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#2—gifts  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **He was somewhere out there in the storm. Heiji had to find him before…

* * *

It was insane to be running out in this kind of storm, particularly in the middle of the night. It was dark, pouring rain in sheets and sheets with thunder and lightning. An awful gale—it could even be considered dangerous to be on the streets now, for various reasons.

Heiji pulled his jacket more tightly around himself and darted down the sidewalk. The outer garment really wasn't doing him any good now, having been soaked through by the rain shortly after he had set out. He was cold and wet, but determined; something told him that there was a great deal riding on him tonight.

He hurt. Right now he hurt a lot—so much had happened, it seemed only fitting that it be raining like this. But he was trying valiantly to push his own feelings aside and do all that he could to help in the search…and to make sure that nothing else was lost tonight…

_**-o-**_

_They made him wait back at the Mouri Detective Agency. He hated it, but grudgingly accepted the situation as it was. Megure wasn't budging so much as a centimeter or hearing any arguments about it._

_Thus began the worst night of Heiji's life. He had to wait for word, for news of his friends…for anything. And he was not good at waiting; anyone who knew him was well aware of the fact that Heiji had no patience to speak of. So he fidgeted; he drummed on the table, paced around tried to find a distracting show on television, paced some more (there was definitely a stripe in the carpet that was a little more threadbare than the rest of it), drummed again…_

_When the phone finally rang, he was actually just pulling his jacket on and preparing to venture out into the rain because he just couldn't stand it anymore. But he vaulted over the couch and fumbled with the receiver for a moment before finally getting it from the cradle and up to his ear. "Hello?" he said, not bothering with the usual pleasantries about this being the Mouri Detective Agency or any such thing. This was the call—he was sure of it._

_Sure enough… "Hattori-kun," Megure said._

_Something about his voice was off; he didn't sound normal. And that told Heiji volumes. "What happened? Did you find them? Are they all right? Who was—"_

_Megure cut him off sharply. "Hattori-kun, listen!" When the teenager fell silent, the Inspector continued. "Something…happened."_

"…_what?"_

_When Megure told him what had happened tonight, Heiji understood why the Inspector had sounded off. And Heiji felt his heart drop into his shoes and shatter._

_And then Megure told him what else had happened. Heiji thanked him and hung up. For a moment, he stood there in shock, just trying to process what he had been told and what had happened. Then reality kicked back in and instinct took over. He jammed his feet into his shoes, grabbed a flashlight, and took off at a dead run. He vaulted down the stairs, gasping when he his the chilly air outside; it was raining and cold._

_And he ran…_

_**-o-**_

Heiji had no idea where he was going, but he knew that he had to get there quickly before tonight was stained with even further tragedy. It was hard to see and hard to think. Where should he look? There had to be some place where his quarry would go. Somewhere to hide…somewhere no one would think to look…somewhere important…

And then he knew. How he knew, he couldn't say. But he knew where to go. It was the only thing that made sense. After all, it was the last place where they had been truly happy.

It was a bit of a trek to get there, especially in this weather—and he had one near-death experience with a car—but soon enough, Tropical Land loomed over him. It was late, and the park was closed; it rose against the sky, dark and ominous, as though it too had been marked by the events that had started unfolding there and continued on to what had happened tonight. It sent a shudder through him

He had asked about this once. And Kudo had somewhat grudgingly brought him here and shown him the spot where…IT had happened. Granted, there wasn't a ton to look at or see, but Heiji had taken a good look around while Kudo hung back a bit. This wasn't a place of happy memories for him, after all.

_Please,_ Heiji thought desperately. _Please be here…please be okay…_

He ducked under the bridge, out of the rain. He stood there for a moment, shivering and trying to catch his breath while he turned on the flashlight and looked around at the space under the bridge.

…and there he was. If Heiji hadn't been looking for him specifically, he might very well have missed him.

Kudo was sitting with his back to one of the concrete bridge supports; he was curled up into a tiny ball, huddled in the shadows. He had his knees pulled up to his chest and his face buried in his arms. He was so still that for a moment, Heiji didn't think he was breathing. He turned the flashlight beam to a point just next to his friend, not wanting to blind him when and if he got his attention. "Kudo."

His head snapped back up to look at the source of the voice. His eyes were wide and shone slightly in the dim light from the flashlight and the flare of lightning from the storm. "Ha…Hattori…" he said softly, almost wondrously, like he was stunned that someone had managed to find him here. "What're you…"

Heiji crossed the distance between them and knelt down in front of them, setting the flashlight on the ground beside him. He reached out and put his hands on Kudo's shoulders. "What're you doing?" Now that he was closer, he could really see how lost Kudo looked. There was no light in his eyes, no feeling or emotion.

"She's gone," Kudo said in a whisper. A tragic irony—now, in his seventeen-year-old body…he was more childlike than he had ever been as seven-year-old Conan. "Hattori, he killed her…"

"I know," Heiji interrupted, finally feeling himself crack. He lowered his head. "I know…"

"Why did he kill her?" Kudo went on in that same thin, child-like tone. "Why didn't he kill me? Why her?"

"I can't tell you that because I don't know."

It was a moment before Kudo spoke again. "Why are you here? How did you find me?"

"Megure told me," Heiji said simply. "So I came to look for you. There's quite a few people out searching for you right now. A lot of people are worried." That wasn't the only thing Megure had told him, but all things considered…even Heiji could recognize that now was the worst possible time to push on anything. Best to wait until things revealed themselves. It seemed there was still time for that, at least.

Shinichi turned his head. "Don't tell them where I am," he said. "Go away and tell them you couldn't find me."

"Not a chance."

"Just go…"

Heiji's hands tightened on Shinichi's shoulders, and without meaning to he gave him a shake. "I know it hurts, but—" He stopped short at the unmistakable flicker or pain that flitted across Kudo's face; it confirmed the final detail as told to him by Megure. "You're hurt, aren't you? Physically hurt."

With each passing moment, his eyes adjusted further to the darkness, aided by the flashlight still glowing at on the ground beside him. He could see how Kudo looked terrified at the question and shook his head. "No. I'm fine…"

"Kudo." Heiji's voice hardened; his tone allowed for no arguments.

Shinichi stared at him for a moment before he uncurled himself enough for Heiji to see dark blotches across his stomach. He also revealed similar stains on his hands. That jived perfectly with what Megure had said—which meant that medical attention was needed.

"Come on," Heiji said, reaching for his friend's arms. "Let's get you to a doctor—"

Shinichi shook his head and pulled his arms and legs back in tightly around himself. He was acting like a child—a lost, frightened child.

Between the chill, Kudo's attitude, and his own feelings over everything that had happened, Heiji's temper began to rise. He grabbed Shinichi's shoulders again and this time gave them a rough shake, ignoring the gasp of pain this drew from the other detective. "What the hell are you doing? Are you just going to sit here and let yourself die? Is that it? Is that your master plan?"

Kudo averted his eyes, which was all the answer Heiji needed.

"No way. Not a chance in hell. We lost her, and we're not losing you too." Even Heiji himself was surprised at the fierceness in his own voice.

"But—" Shinichi tried, but he was cut off.

"No buts!" Heiji snapped. "Do you think this is what Ran would want?" He had never called her by her given name, or even really referred to her as such, always instead opting for the affectionate 'neechan.' But right now, he suspected that it was the only thing strong enough to get through to Kudo.

He was right.

At the sound of her name, Kudo looked up sharply; he looked like he'd been slapped. For a minute, Heiji wondered if he had finally managed to get through the shock…but that was dashed when Kudo suddenly surged to his feet, shoving Heiji away in the process. He had one hand on the concrete bridge support for stability, and was in obvious pain, but he was standing tall and giving Heiji a murderous look.

"You don't know anything," he said in a voice as cold as ice. "Now leave me alone." He started walking away. Well, maybe walking was too kind a word. He was staggering and stumbling, leaning heavily on the wall. His injury was obviously severe and getting worse by the moment, but he was trying desperately to hide it.

Heiji grabbed the flashlight from the ground and followed him. "What're you doing?"

"Go away," Shinichi stumbled past the bridge and out into the rain. "Leave me alone." He was making his way towards the hill that led back up to the street, finally staggering onto the sidewalk.

"Would you stop?" Heiji moved in front of him. He wondered if the search party would come this far; he'd left his phone back at the agency, so he couldn't call for help. "Dammit, Kudo…" He grabbed Kudo's wrist, trying to stop him from moving away again…and felt the cold metal and plastic of that interesting little watch under his hand. The watch that had been used countless times to knock out old man Mouri and employed in the company of the voice-changing bowtie to solve numerous mysteries.

When Shinichi tried to pull away—and the lack of strength in his struggle proved that he was weakening—Heiji made a very quick decision. He twisted the watchband around on Kudo's wrist and fumbled around the edge of it in search of the button. He found it, and he pressed it; he was close enough to hear a little whooshing sound…

And Kudo straightened up. He stared at him for his last second of consciousness, as though bewildered as to what had just happened. "Ha…Hattori…" he murmured before his eyes closed and he slumped forward. Heiji caught him and lowered him to the ground, Kudo's forehead resting on his shoulder.

In many ways it was cruel, and he wondered if Kudo would hate him for this later. But right now, it sort of seemed that unconsciousness was the best gift he could give his friend at that moment. It meant unawareness, unfeeling, not having to know what was going on around him.

Headlights appeared on the street, and a moment later the car they belonged to came to a stop beside them. The car door opened, and a voice called out to him. "Hattori-kun!" So they had been found. From here on out, whatever happened was out of his hands.

As footsteps hurried towards them, he looked back down at the unconscious form leaning against him. "…I'm sorry," he said, knowing that he wouldn't be heard.

* * *

**PS.** _Whew…angst! YAY! Haven't had enough angst in this challenge. And yes, I killed Ran off. Please don't hurt me. Anyway, this marks the fifteenth story in this challenge. __**I'm officially halfway done with the Friends challenge!**__ YAY! Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	16. A Little Loopy

**Title: **A Little Loopy  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#14—fair weather friend, rainy day friend  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Of all the days for Kudo to get sick…

* * *

Of all the times for Kudo to get sick, he had to pick the day that Heiji and Kazuha popped in for a visit from Osaka. Their plans thus became rather cramped, as the little boy was too sick to go anywhere, and Ran didn't trust her father with the child's care—were her father actually willing to lift a finger in the first place. So they decided to hang out at the agency, where they could keep an eye on Conan. 

"I'll take that up for ya, Neechan," Heiji offered, pulling the tray carefully out of Ran's hands. It would give him an excuse to go see the shrunken detective and see how he was doing. And possibly annoy him a bit. Annoying Kudo was one of Heiji's favorite pastimes!

Ran had no protests, and so Heiji headed on over to her bedroom—the kid's futon had temporarily been moved into her room so she could keep an eye on him while he was sick. Apparently, she _really_ didn't trust her father. Normally, Heiji would have been coming up with joke up joke about the fact that Kudo was sleeping in Neechan's room, but hey, the guy was sick.

Kudo was sound asleep (or so it appeared); his face was flushed, and even from the doorway Heiji could hear a faint, hoarse whistling sound with each breath the kid took. But as he tiptoed closer, one blue eye opened and zeroed in on him with a glazed look. "…you're not Ran," he mumbled, closing his eye again.

"Nope," Heiji knelt down carefully so as not to upend the tray in his hands. On said tray was a cup of tea and a dose of what looked and smelled suspiciously like cough syrup in a small plastic cup. He picked that up and held it out to the faux-child. "Here ya go."

Conan sat up and took the proffered dose. He looked at it and wrinkled his nose. "Yuck."

Heiji bit back a laugh at the look on his face. Kudo was actually acting like a petulant seven-year-old. "Come on," he cajoled. "Might as well get it over with."

With a sigh of resignation, Kudo obediently down the medication in one gulp. He winced violently at the awful taste, and this time Heiji did chuckle. Kudo sat still a moment, then looked up at Heiji with that same unfocused look. "You know what, Hattori?"

"What?"

"You suck."

Heiji nearly fell over. "WHAT?"

"You're a foul weather friend!" Kudo went on, giving him an accusatory look—quite a feat, considering his eyes were as glazed as donuts. His words were slurring together. "That's what you are!"

"…how so?"

"You always show up and there's a murder and bad stuff happens!" he said, waving one hand haphazardly as he spoke. "But where are you when nothing's going on and we could just hang out? NOWHERE! Or maybe in Osaka. But the point is that you're not here!" At this point, he threw his arms in the air, as though exasperated. "And that's why you suck." He nodded curtly as he said that last.

Heiji blinked as Kudo swayed back and forth a couple of times, then fell back against the futon. He was asleep again before his head touched the pillow.

Ran chose that moment to stick her head in. "Hattori-kun? Is everything okay?" she said as she stepped into the room. "We thought we heard yelling."

He looked back over his shoulder at her, then asked, "Neechan…what was in that cough syrup?" Mentally, he made a note to visit again when Kudo was sick. The guy was funny when he went all loopy!

* * *

**PS.** _Inspired by a certain strip in the fabulous webcomic __**Count Your Sheep**__. It cracked me up, and I thought of this theme. And so it goes, and so it goes…not much else to say about this one. Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	17. Keeping the Secret

**Title: **Keeping the Secret  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#6—promise?  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **You think I'm okay with you knowing about all this?

* * *

Conan had a bad feeling that something unpleasant was going to happen today. When the phone rang and Ran answered it, he felt a chill of premonition. And when she turned and said it was for him and handed him the receiver, he was proven right. 

"Oi, Kudo!" a cheerful, heavily-accented voice rang from the other end of the line.

He actually had to pull the receiver away from his ear to protect himself from the sheer volume. "You don't have to shout," he said delicately. "I can hear just fine." Why Hattori was calling, he didn't know, but he doubted that it was anything he cared about. Or rather, he was determined not to care. He was still rather sore about being found out.

Kudo Shinichi did NOT like being outsmarted. Not under any circumstances. And so he tended to pout when such things happened. But Hattori seemed determined to not let him mope about it…and it was really annoying! Honestly, why did the guy have to be so damn friendly? Something about that guy had his hackles up, and he couldn't figure out exactly why.

Plus, it didn't help that the whole situation had him more on edge than he cared to admit. His survival and the survival of the people around him depended on secrecy, and Hattori thus far seemed to have a Detective Looselips aura around him. And judging by the robust way in which he had been greeted by his true name over the phone, the desperate need for that secrecy had not been sufficiently impressed on the Osakan teen.

The idea of Ran or anyone near him becoming a target because of a loudmouth detective letting something slip…it terrified Conan. It terrified him more than the idea of him becoming a victim himself.

…and Hattori was still talking. But it seemed that the lack of replies had finally been noticed. "You're awfully quiet," Heiji said, finally noticing that the last minute or so had consisted of very one-sided chatting. "What's up?

Conan glanced around and found he was alone in the office. Therefore, it was safe to be blunt. "You think I'm okay with you knowing about all this?" he snapped, a little more harshly than he'd really intended. But recent events had stretched his nerves to the breaking point.

There was a long silence on the other end of the line.

By the time Hattori spoke again, Conan was seriously considering slamming the receiver down again, if only for his own satisfaction. But his rival piped up just in time to keep the conversation from having a very abrupt, very rude ending.

"…why aren't you?"

"Because my life—and the lives of everyone around me—depend on no one knowing," he said flatly.

"And you think I won't be able to keep your secret." That was a statement, not a question.

"You just called me Kudo, didn't you?" Conan replied, dropping his voice to make doubly certain that he wasn't overheard.

"…I won't tell."

Something about the way Hattori said that made him pause. It was some odd note in his tone, far more serious than was normal for the Osakan detective. Hattori didn't seem capable of being terribly serious outside of a crime scene. So to hear it now was sort of strange. "Hattori—"

"You said you don't want anyone to know. And I promised not to tell. Don't know why you don't trust me on it," Hattori said matter-of-factly.

It was then that Conan realized what it was about Hattori that really had him so on edge. It was partially that Hattori had dragged his secret out of him with seemingly no effort (and a well-timed application of blackmail), and he didn't like being outsmarted. But more than that…

He realized that he _wanted_ to trust Hattori.

Granted, he didn't have much of a choice at this point. The fact was that Hattori knew the truth. And that made him bristle. But at the same time, there was something about the guy that made Conan really want to trust him without the reservation of knowing that he _had_ to.

It was strange—particularly for someone who was accustomed to being suspicious by nature. He was a detective. He had made his reputation by being suspicious of pretty much everything and everyone.

He took a deep breath. "…you promise not to tell?"

"I already told you that."

"…okay." He wondered if he was going to regret this…or if it would turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

"Great!" Hattori cheered from the other end of the line. "So…tell me more about Neechan?"

All signs pointed to regret…but it was still too soon to tell.

* * *

**PS.** _I had this idea about a century and a half ago—I had scrawled at the bottom something about classes giving me hell. Except I haven't been in classes for almost a year now. I did my student teaching, graduated, and got my first real job. But I pulled it out and thought, "Eh, it's kinda cute" and decided to go ahead and finish it._

_**I post this today in honor of my twenty-second birthday :D** Hope you enjoyed the story! Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	18. Afternoon Walk

**Title: **Afternoon Walk  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#9—the third wheel  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **I think they need a moment alone.

* * *

We're going on a walk.

Wonderful.

Oh well. Get to go outside, enjoy the weather, maybe heckle Kudo a little. Besides, I've never been to Karuizawa, and it could be fun to wander around and check the place out. So I let Kazuha and the others lead the way outside. Neechan said that she's been here before—Kudo's parents brought them here for a visit. So she sort of knows her way around. Guess she gets to lead the way.

As we're walking along, she pipes up. "This street is called the Whispering Path."

"Whispering Path?" Kazuha replies before turning to me. "Hey, Heiji—whisper something."

Why does the ahou always have to pull stuff like this? Hey, maybe I can have some fun with it! "Okay—come here." She looks sort of surprised, but leans her ear over. And I whisper, "You are…AN IDIOT!" She jerks back, looking annoyed. I think it's hilarious.

The ahou.

Then we hear bells. A little further down the road, we see the church. Neechan says it's called the Ryu-Karuizawa Church. There's a wedding going on—that's kind of cool. Congrats to them. But Kazuha goes all puppy-eyed and dreamy about how pretty and romantic it is. And so does Neechan, but she's got a little bit more reason.

"Ne, Ran-chan," Kazuha speaks up. This can't possibly be good. Sure enough… "Were you just imagining doing that with Kudo-kun?" Oh yeah. Definitely not a good thing.

"What're you talking about?" Neechan sputters. "I wasn't imagining anything!"

"Oh really?" Kazuha keeps prodding. "Then what was up with that dreamy look on your face?"

Neechan looks sort of annoyed (not that I blame her), and then smirks. I think she picked that particular expression up from Kudo (a very bad habit) and says, "Oh, and what about you, Kazuha-chan?"

The look on Kazuha's face is absolutely priceless. Bravo, Neechan. "What are you talking about? We don't do that kind of thing!"

"Oh my," Neechan leans in, looking very pleased with herself. I really like her. "What kind of thing don't you do? And who is this 'we'?"

Kazuha sputters and tells her to hush. And Kudo and I stand off to the side, watching. We are now completely united in our mutual lack of understanding of how the hell girls operate. There's a mystery neither of us will ever solve.

We continue on our way, coming across a small lake. "This is Kumoba Pond," Neechan says, leading us through the rope-lined pathway. "Shinichi and I rode our bikes here from their villa."

Kazuha pipes up about how pretty it was, and I do have to agree—it is actually really nice here. Except now Neechan looks sort of sad. She's talking about Kudo again.

My eyes drifted down towards my fellow detective to see what he thought of it all…and for a minute, I swear I saw Kudo kneeling there beside Neechan, staring out over the lake with this weird, distant look on his face.

I rubbed at my eyes, and when I looked again, he was back to his shorter self…and Kazuha was leaning into my line-of-sight, giving me a really concerned look and asking if I was all right.

Blink blink.

Yeah. I'm fine.

Neechan says we should go check out something else now—Water Bird Island, she says it's called—and starts walking. Shorty trails along beside her, automatically reaching up to take her hand. How cute. And so those two are off.

Kazuha starts following them, but I hang back. "Hey, Kazuha."

She turns around. "What?"

"…let's go back," I say, heading back towards the gate.

"What? Why?" she asks.

"Doesn't matter. Let's just go."

I can almost hear Kazuha thinking, trying to make up her mind. Then… "Heiji! Wait!" I slow down to wait, and she jogs to catch up to me. Just like I knew she would.

I don't know why I saw Kudo there, but…maybe it's best to just sneak off and let those two have a moment alone during their trip down Memory Lane. Something tells me that doesn't happen very often.

_**-o-**_

…okay, so Kudo found me out.

How the hell does he do that? He just nailed me on the issue of the broken wine bottle.

Jerk.

Except…he's being way too nice about it. And saying that he's not going to tell. That's sort of out of character for a guy who's freakin' catchphrase is all about the truth. But still… "I'm embarrassed. I owe you yet another favor." I think he might have rights to my first-born by now.

"No," he says, sticking his hands in his pockets and starting to walk off, "I'm just returning your favor from earlier."

It takes me a second to figure out what he means. So he did appreciate getting a couple of minutes alone with Neechan. But something tells me he would keep that all behind his teeth even under torture.

…sometimes I think we might have the strangest friendship on the planet.

* * *

**PS.** _Oh dear Lord…I started this one at least a YEAR ago, and never finished it. So I come back to it now…and I can't remember exactly where I was going with it. But I was also too lazy to start over. So if it seems a little weird, that's why xD_

_This is entirely based off the second Conan OVA, which takes place at Shiratori's villa. It's got some cute moments in it if you get the chance to watch it. Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	19. Where It Happened

**Title: **Where It Happened  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#8—secrets and lies  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **This place made him very uneasy…the place where the secrets and lies were born…

* * *

"I really don't understand why you wanted to see this," Conan commented, leading the way down a small incline to a grassy spot, all but hidden unless one was looking for it. Sounds of music and conversation floated at them from Tropical Land across the street.

"Because I did," Hattori replied bluntly. He had followed relatively quietly up until this point, but now he stepped around his diminutive companion and walked forward. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around at the space. "Is this the place?"

Conan nodded. "This is it."

While Hattori wandered around the area and looked his fill (not that there was really much to see), Conan realized that he was inching backwards, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, and glancing around furtively, as though he expected Gin to suddenly appear and finish the job.

This was silly—right now, it was just a vacant space under a bridge. There was no reason for him to be so nervous.

…except that this was the place where it had happened. This was where he'd encountered Gin and Vodka in an up-close, personal manner that had nearly killed him. Instead, he'd been left trapped in the body of his childhood self and hiding from everyone he cared about in the hopes that he could keep them alive and still somehow track down the Men in Black. In the process, he'd managed to lie to almost everyone he knew.

This was really where all of those secrets and lies had been born.

He shuddered involuntarily and took a couple of steps back. "Hattori, I'm going back up there," he pointed towards the sidewalk up the hill. "I'll wait for you up there." He turned and headed back up towards the street, not waiting for an answer; he heard Hattori call after him, but ignored him.

Once he was back on the sidewalk, he was able to breathe a bit more easily. He waited with as much patience as possible for Hattori to come out of there a few minutes later and join him back at the street. "Impatient much?" the Osakan detective quipped as they started walking away.

The glare Conan gave him could have frozen water. "Would you want to go back to the place where something like this happened to you?" he snapped, perhaps a bit more harshly than he had intended. He gestured to himself as he said it. Truthfully, he hadn't expected the place to put him on edge as much as it had. But still…

Hattori's next words were almost remorseful. "You have a point."

Conan sighed. He wasn't going to apologize for snapping, but he wasn't going to hold onto the moment either. "So did you see what you wanted to see?" he asked in a more conversational tone.

"Yup. Was just kinda curious about it," Hattori shrugged. "That's a really isolated spot, though. If the ahotoxin had done its job and killed you, it might have been a while before anyone found you."

"APOtoxin!" Conan resisted the urge to facepalm. "APOtoxin. Not AHOtoxin. Ahou is your pet name for your girlfriend. And I know, I know, she's not your girlfriend," he waved a hand and added that last to stave off the growling rebuttal he knew would come otherwise. "But good lord. You can't remember what the poison is called, you can't keep my name straight—what the hell is it with you and names?"

"Watch it, shrimp. Or I'll drop you off the bridge."

* * *

**PS.** _So…lack of plot, anyone? Referenced in another fic the idea that Conan showed Heiji where the poisoning happened, and so thought it could have its own fic. And lo, it was plotless! WHEE!! Next one is number twenty, meaning that we will be two-thirds of the way through this challenge. Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	20. Hidden Meaning

**Title: **Hidden Meaning  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#19—lunchtime  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Conan realized that he hadn't heckled Hattori in a while.

* * *

Conan was having trouble believing that it was actually possible for a person to be that stupid. But as usual, Hattori managed to destroy some of his dearest illusions by being living, breathing proof of that level of stupidity. The man was utterly hopeless.

For the entirety of the time they had been out to lunch with the girls, he had wanted to kick his Osakan friend in the shins exactly thirty-one and a half times. The half was from one instance where Hattori had started to say something stupid, but saved himself at the very last moment by cracking a joke instead—but if he'd been serious, it would have been murder. And he had wanted to kick Hattori in the _head_ six times.

Honestly—how many clues and hints did the poor girl have to drop before the light bulb clicked on? Conan was willing to bet his first edition copy of _The Hound of the Baskervilles_ that it was going to take a massive power surge (like a lightning strike) to get so much as a flicker out of this guy.

On the bright side, however, he and Ran would usually have to pay for this sort of entertainment. In this case, it came free with lunch. Let it never be said that he didn't know how to see the silver lining in a given situation.

Poor Kazuha looked ready to explode. And finally, she got up and walked away, muttering something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like "shoe horn" and something about where she was going to shove it. Conan didn't try to listen too hard; he had a feeling it would hurt on principle.

But then he got an idea. Truth be told, he hadn't heckled Hattori in a while. And the opportunity was right there.

As Ran and the Osakan idiot headed out the door, Conan tiptoed over to Kazuha and gave her his best Cute Little Boy Face. "Ne, Kazuha-neechan," he said innocently, "what does 'make out' mean?"

Kazuha's eyes widened. "Where did you hear that?"

"Heiji-niichan."

"…why does that not surprise me?" she sighed, already visibly gearing up for letting her best friend and resident ahou have a piece of her mind. "Don't worry about it, Conan-kun—"

Conan went on, "Well, I was wondering because he said it about you."

Now she stopped. "I…err, what?"

He nodded emphatically. "Yes! He said," here, he paused and put on his best deep 'big boy' voice in the typical manner of a child trying to imitate an adult, "'Kazuha's hot, but she's such an ahou! I'd make out with her if she wasn't so damn stupid!'"

Kazuha opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. "Oh…well, Conan-kun, don't worry about it. Now excuse me…" She walked past him—completely oblivious to the fact that she was essentially leaving him behind—and headed out of the restaurant. Beyond the door, Hattori and Ran were waiting for them on the sidewalk.

Conan waited. He heard the first scream, and snickered.

If Hattori was lucky, she would be more impressed by his alleged comments about her hotness than by the ahou comments. If Hattori wasn't lucky…eh, he had a thick skull. He'd be just fine.

* * *

**PS.** _And with this, we have reached number twenty. Ten more until this challenge is laid to rest. YAY! Regarding the fic itself, I thought we'd had a few serious ones in a row, so we needed some humor. And no, I don't know what Kazuha said or did in response to this. Conan is proud of himself, though. He's being helpful!_

_Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	21. Hypothetical

**Title: **Hypothetical  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#13—long distance  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Heiji has a question. Completely hypothetical, of course.

* * *

"Kudo…I have a hypothetical question."

That was an ominous start to this phone conversation, but Shinichi steeled himself for whatever was going to come next and said, "What's up?" Somehow, he doubted he was going to like this.

"You know how Kazuha went to America for a while, right?"

"Yes…"

"Well…" Hattori said slowly; even though he was all the way in Osaka, Shinichi could almost see him fidgeting as he tried to phrase this the right way. "Let's say that hypothetically she dated someone while she was there."

"Uh-huh."

"And that someone broke her heart and hurt her really, really badly."

"…yes…" Now Shinichi was more concerned than anything else. He liked Toyama-san; he had always thought her to be a strong, intelligent young woman. If something had happened to her…that did not make him a happy guy.

"And let's call that the reason that she came back to Japan," Hattori went on. "And that's how we wound up together and rooming together and all that. You know most of that, right?"

"Hattori, what happened?" Shinichi said shortly; he was worried.

"…what would you do if that guy showed up on your doorstep while you weren't home and when you came home, you walked in on him kissing her? And then she chased him out, but then he came back and started talking crap about her?" Hattori said in a rush. "Would you kill him? And if so, how would you do it?"

"…Hattori, what the hell?"

"Answer the question."

Shinichi sighed. "This is hypothetical, right?"

"Yes."

"…if it was me, I probably would deck him. At least once," Shinichi said honestly, trying to re-imagine the situation with Ran in place of Toyama-san. "I'd make sure he hurt. And then I'd scare him enough that he would never come back. But no, I don't think I would kill him."

"Okay, good. Thanks—you're a real pal!"

"Hattori, wait a—"

_Beep beep beep…_

Shinichi stared, bewildered, at the receiver in his hand, newly disconnected from its most recent long-distance call from Osaka. "What the hell…?"

* * *

**PS.** _I blame this squarely on __**ytak**__. Entirely, one hundred percent. This is actually a reference to another fic mini-series I'm doing, simply entitled The Apartment. The first story appeared as the last fic in 30 Hugs, and it's currently being continued in fanfic100. It's Heiji/Kazuha, and the premise is that Kazuha went to America, had a REALLY bad experience with a guy there, and came back. She and Heiji are now roommates. And also dating. In the most recent installation (fic forty-nine in fanfic100), The Guy popped in for a visit. Which prompted this fic._

_Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	22. Little Green Monster

**Title: **Little Green Monster  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#17—jealousy  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Heiji wasn't jealous of Kudo. No way.

* * *

Hattori Heiji was not jealous of Kudo.

No way in hell.

After all, why should he be jealous of Kudo Shinichi? There was absolutely no reason for it at all! Honestly, what did the Tokyo tantei have that he didn't? Nothing!

Kudo was a famous high school detective.

Heiji was a famous high school detective.

Kudo was a soccer ace.

Heiji was a kendo star.

Kudo lived alone, as his parents were overseas, and had total freedom to do pretty much whatever he wanted.

Heiji's parents were…his parents. 'Nuff said.

Kudo had a rocket-powered skateboard, a bowtie that allowed him to imitate anyone's voice, super sneakers that packed quite a punch, and a wristwatch that shot sleeping darts.

Heiji had a motorcycle.

Kudo had friends in the FBI and CIA.

Heiji knew a lot of cops.

Kudo had Neechan—Mouri Ran, one of the most loving, caring, loyal individuals Heiji had ever met. She was sweet, gentle, and completely devoted to the Detective of the East.

Heiji had the ahou—Toyama Kazuha, one of the loudest, most annoying, most stubborn people Heiji had ever been unfortunate enough to know. She was completely devoted to making sure the Detective of the West never had a moment's peace.

Kudo had spent god only knew how long stuck in the body of his seven year old self while hiding from a massive Crime Syndicate of Evil and a psychotic, trigger-happy madman, all out for his blood.

…okay, Heiji didn't really have anything to compare to that. Even when things were at their worst in his world, his life had never sucked _that_ much.

So there was obviously no reason at all for Heiji to be jealous of Kudo. None at all. No little green monsters around here! And besides, they were on all but equal footing as detectives. It wasn't like Kudo always beat him to the punch or anything. So there was no reason—

"I've got it!" Kudo said triumphantly. "I know who the murderer is!"

…Heiji hated Kudo so damn much.

* * *

**PS.** _Short and silly. Not much else to say. Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	23. Prior Engagement

**Title: **Prior Engagement  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#25—forgiveness  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Heiji made a HUGE blunder. And Shinichi is NOT happy.

* * *

Kudo was pissed.

Granted, Heiji had screwed up rather royally. But still, this much anger over it didn't seem fair.

…okay, it did seem fair. But that didn't mean that he was going to take it quietly. He was incapable of doing anything quietly, after all. He was going to annoy, needle, bother, and beg forgiveness out of the Tokyo detective by any means necessary!

But unlike other times, when Heiji had screwed up, they had bickered and then all had been well, this time Kudo was _not_ forthcoming with the forgiveness. Not even a plea from Neechan could change his mind, which flew in the face of one of Heiji's core beliefs about his friend and rival detective—he had always thought Kudo to be incapable of refusing her anything.

Neechan made it clear that she understood why Shinichi was so angry, but she'd also been sympathetic and understand about Heiji's blunder. And she certainly didn't think it should destroy their friendship.

It was four days after his monumental error that he finally got a chance to confront his friendly rival about the situation. Kudo was, understandably, not pleased. "Go to hell, Hattori," he said bluntly.

"You can't stay mad forever!" Heiji said.

"Wanna bet on that?"

"It was an honest mistake," Heiji countered.

"You never could keep your mouth shut about anything, could you? Remember how many times you called me 'Kudo' when I was Conan?" Shinichi spat angrily. "You knew how important this was!"

"Why were you dragging your feet about it?"

"As previously stated, you can go to hell."

"Kudo, come on—" Heiji tried to protest again, but Shinichi walked past him and exited the room, leaving Heiji to howl at the closed door. "How was I supposed to know you hadn't given her the ring yet??"

* * *

**PS.** _I'll let your imaginations fill in the blanks as to how Heiji managed to screw up Shinichi's proposal to Ran. The hand-puppets are too angry to tell me. So I don't know. Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	24. Cold Case

**Title: **Cold Case  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#21—common ground  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Across the snowy slopes, they stared at each other.

* * *

It was snowing like crazy. And across the snowy slopes, the two teenagers stared at each other.

They had caught each other's eye, and each immediately realized who the other was. After all, the weather was too bad for skiing, so who else would be out on the slopes at this time? Both were accompanied by a girl, seemingly their own age.

For a moment, the glares were speculative and suspicious. They were sizing each other up, taking each other's measure on sight alone. If recent events in the lodge and over the phone were to be believed…they both aspired to be a detective, and were intellectual equals. And suffice to say that neither of them had met anyone their own age that they could call that. Not even close.

And slowly, the gazes changed from suspicion to identical smirks that spoke volumes of knowing. It was acknowledgement, as if to say, "You are my equal" without actually speaking a word. They had not met, per se, but they already knew they shared common ground.

The moment passed, and the darker-skinned boy continued on his way down the hill. He was carrying his female companion on his back; she wore only one shoe, which suggested that she had sustained a foot or leg injury that prevented her from walking herself.

The other stayed behind, standing in the snow with his own friend. As the two disappeared into the snow, the girl turned to the boy. "Shinichi? Who was that?"

Shinichi smirked and turned back to her. "I think I just made a new friend." He didn't know that guy's name, but something told him that they would definitely cross paths again.

* * *

**PS.** _This very short ficlet is inspired by volume 51, file 1. It's the finale of a case set when Shinichi and Heiji were both in middle school and wound up solving the same case…via different means. They didn't actually lay eyes on each other until the very end, which is the scene behind this ficlet._

_Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	25. Back of the Hall

**Title: **Back of the Hall  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#26—passing notes  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **They had to attend this lecture. Nobody said they had to pay attention.

* * *

"Fancy seeing you here."

Heiji looked up at the sound of the familiar voice. "Was wondering if you'd show up."

"Didn't really have a choice," Shinichi replied, dropping into the empty chair next to him; they were thankfully near the back of the lecture hall. "But hey, maybe it won't be too bad. And if it is…well, you'll just have to amuse you." He grinned when Heiji snorted at the idea.

A new law had gone out, decreeing that all private detectives had to register. There were various reasons for this, of course. One of the primary ones was that while a good many of them were good and professional (like Shinichi and Heiji), there were a fair number who operated on some less-than-scrupulous principles or without proper knowledge of various procedures. Some were even fronts for criminal operations.

To combat this, law now required licensure and attendance at certain seminars to make certain that Japan's private detectives were up to speed on procedure and protocol and knew how to work with police, as well as weeding out the ones who weren't in the professional to help people.

Both Kudo Shinichi and Hattori Heiji were household names as detectives, and had been since their late teens. They knew all of the material listed on the seminar outline as well as they knew their own names. This was old hat to them. But the law was the law, and if they wanted to continue with their successful livelihoods, they were going to have to play along and suffer through this.

They sat and just talked while they waited for this show to get on the road. Various others stopped to greet them upon entering; given their reputations, this was not entirely unfounded. They saw plenty of people they recognized from past cases or meetings, and many others that they didn't. When Mouri Kogoro entered, he waved to them but did not come over; granted, he probably saw a fair amount of his son-in-law as it was. But there was one young man who stopped over to shake their hands with no small amount of hero-worship in his eyes.

As the young man moved away in search of a seat, Heiji turned to his friend with a smile that was only mildly amused. "Do you think we're the reason he went into this field?"

"Could be," Shinichi replied. "But that doesn't mean he won't do well." The Detective of the East sat back in his chair. "So how is Kazuha-san doing? And how are you doing? Wedding plans coming along?"

Heiji turned faintly pink. "She's freaking out. I think she would have gone completely crazy if my mother wasn't there to make sure everything went along smoothly. I'm perfectly happy to leave all the planning in their hands, though. I only venture an opinion if I'm directly asked. That way if something gets messed up, Kazuha can't blame me for it. I had nothing to do with it."

At that, Shinichi laughed. "I will admit that Ran and I did leave a lot of the plans for our wedding in her mother's hands. Eri-san is a very efficient, very organized woman…and both Ran and I were too love-struck to really be useful. So she charged ahead. If she hadn't, we probably wouldn't have had much of a reception."

"How is Neechan?" Heiji asked; they were adults now, but he still called Ran by the affectionate nickname he had adopted for her when they'd first met as teenagers. "She's hanging in there?"

"The doctor said she has to hang on for another two weeks. After that, the baby can come anytime it wants."

"Excited?"

"Scared to death."

"Understandable."

The conversation was cut short when the lights dimmed and a thin man with a moustache stepped up to the podium at the front of the room. "May I have your attention please? Find your seats." There was a rustle as the few people still standing in the aisles scattered in search of vacant chairs.

When the noise died down, the lecture began. The first speaker was discussing proper crime scene procedure: wearing gloves, preserving evidence, questioning witnesses, and the like. In other words, they were explaining things that Shinichi and Heiji had been aware of since childhood and actively doing since their late teens.

Needless to say, neither was really paying attention. This was a formality. All they really wanted to do was fill out the paperwork to get their licenses and get out of there. Unfortunately, that was the last thing on the itinerary for the day, so they were just going to have to wait.

As the speaker flipped yet another slide with yet another bulleted list and explained the proper means of collecting physical evidence, Shinichi felt something touch his hand on the table. He looked down to see that Hattori had pushed a notebook towards him, bumping it into his fingers to get his attention. Heiji's eyes, however, seemed to be totally focused at the front of the room.

Shinichi pulled the notebook over and looked down at it. At the top of the page, in Heiji's semi-literate scrawl, was written _So bored! _It was accompanied by a crudely-drawn picture of a sleeping face, complete with a sound balloon constituting a snore.

He bit back a chuckle and picked up his own pen. He wrote _Necessary evil? Or is this legalized torture? _And he drew an equally-crude sketch of a stick figure cracking a whip before sliding it back across the table.

Heiji laughed quietly and scribbled, _Maybe they think there are too many detectives and this will cut down on the surplus? There's gotta be some kind of conspiracy here._

Shinichi grinned. _Still don't understand why we couldn't get a free pass on this. We busted the Black Organization. What else do they want from us?_

Heiji wrote back, _To test their new insomnia cure?_

_Kudo and Hattori use it! You should too! _Shinichi scribbled, now fighting to keep from laughing out loud. Really, this was incredible juvenile, and far more suited to a high school classroom than two experienced professional detectives at this kind of a lecture. But really…it was sort of fun.

This time Heiji's reply consisted of a large drawing of several snoring stick figures and a person with devil horns cackling next to them. The speech balloon read something about world domination.

For some reason, that did it. Shinichi bust out laughing, and when the entire lecture hall (including the speaker) fell silent and turned to look at him in surprise, he quickly had to convert the laughter into a massive coughing fit. After all, he was Kudo Shinichi. He was a well-known, well-respected professional. He did NOT start laughing uproariously in a setting like this.

Thinking quickly, Heiji stood up and waved a hand. "Sorry, I think he choked on something." He conveniently flipped the notebook cover closed as he grabbed Shinichi's arm and pulled him from the hall and out into the lobby, where they could both safely get their amusement out before going back in.

Maybe this wasn't going to be as bad of a day as they thought. At least they could keep each other amused.

* * *

**PS.** _I send this out to __**ytak**__, who inspired it. Thank you! And this makes twenty-five. Five more fics until this challenge is done, yay! Hope you enjoyed the story. Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	26. Change for the Better

**Title: **Change for the Better  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#5—hidden treasures  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Things really aren't all bad, are they?

* * *

"Got a question for ya," Heiji said.

Conan looked up from his book. "Hmm?"

"I was thinking—"

"New experience?"

"Shut up. But I was wondering—do you think things would be different between us if you hadn't been shrunk?"

"You mean if you and I had met and I was still Shinichi?"

"Yeah."

Conan opened his mouth to reply…and then closed it again when he realized that he didn't have an immediate answer. Instead, he had to stop and really think about the question.

If he had been Shinichi when he and Hattori met…somehow, he didn't think they would have been as good of friends as they were. For one, he had taken serious umbrage at the guy showing up out of nowhere to challenge him on his own turf. And his initial impression had been that the Osakan detective was sort of annoying.

But because he was Conan…truth be told, he'd trusted Hattori initially because he had to. There was no choice. If Hattori hadn't held that little bit of knowledge over his head, Conan probably wouldn't have counted on seeing him again in any context.

And because of that, how many cases had they gone running off on together? How many adventures had they lived through? How many "debates" had they had about…well, everything? How many times had he gotten off scot-free for a momentary lapse in judgment (or sanity) while Hattori had gotten slapped and/or chewed out?

"If I wasn't stuck like this…" Conan said slowly, closing his book in his lap as he answered, "…I don't think things would be anything like they are between us. Not even remotely the same."

"…in a good way or a bad way?" Heiji asked.

"I'm not sure," Conan replied. "But put it this way—things really aren't all that bad now, are they?"

Heiji grinned. "No. They're not."

* * *

**PS.** _Random pointless fluff where the theme is sort of implied. YAY! Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	27. Host with the Most

**Title: **Host with the Most  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#10—a night out  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **A plan to mess with the guys backfires. Sort of.

* * *

"I don't know about this…" Ran whimpered, though she did allow herself to be pulled along by Kazuha.

"Trust me," Kazuha said knowingly, pulling Ran towards a dingy-looking building. "You want to make sure that Kudo-kun really loves you? This is the way. Consider it a test, if you will."

"But I don't doubt Shinichi!" Ran protested; then a thought occurred to her, and her eyes narrowed. "Or are you just trying to make Hattori-kun jealous, and you don't want to go alone, so you dragged me along for a girls' night out."

"…oh hush."

_**-o-**_

The girls had gone out for the evening, leaving Shinichi and Heiji to their own devices. So they were just hanging out, engaging in their usual friendly debates before finally agreeing to watch a baseball game on TV. Shinichi was not a big fan of baseball ("How can you call this a sport! They just stand there and wait for the ball to come to them!") but there was no soccer game on to suggest as an alternative.

They were in the bottom of the seventh (bases loaded, two outs, and the heavy hitter coming up to bat—pretty stereotypical, really) when Heiji's cell phone rang. He grabbed it, muttered something about the ahou (leaving Shinichi to deduce that it was Kazuha), and answered, "Hello?"

"Hi, Heiji!" she cheered.

Heiji frowned. "What are you doing?" In the background, he could hear male voices talking.

"Oh, nothing really," she said airily. "But you're not going to believe this—Ran-chan and I found a host club. They're really fun guys!" There were cheers and masculine hoots behind her. "We're having a great time! Just wanted to see what you're up to."

By now Heiji was on his feet. "Where are you?"

"I already told you that, ahou—"

"No, I mean where are you? Address?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just tell me!" he demanded.

"No." And she hung up.

Heiji felt like he was missing something, but he decided that now was not the time for rational thought. He whirled around and barked at Shinichi, who was still relaxing in his chair and watching the game. "Kudo, do you know how we can find the girls?"

"…why do we want to find them?" Shinichi asked, bewildered.

"Kazuha dragged Neechan to a host club."

That lit a fire under Shinichi. Not that he actually thought Ran would ever do anything—she was loyal to a fault. But it was the principle of the thing! And besides, masculine pride demanded that he go and rescue his lady-love from the clutches of those…other guys. Not to mention that he'd heard host clubs could be some fairly seedy places. Ran could take care of herself (as could Kazuha, really), but still—he didn't like the idea. So he nodded. "I don't know where that would be—but I know someone who probably can give us a hint…"

Somehow, he was not looking forward to calling Sonoko with this particular question.

_**-o-**_

Ran was rapidly deciding that she didn't like host clubs. Still, a couple of the guys were proving to be quite pleasant conversation, and Kazuha was having fun goofing off, so she just made herself comfortable and settled in to talk. It turned out that one of the young men knew karate, and so they were discussing techniques.

That was the state of things when the door exploded open and two hurricanes came flying into the room.

Ran was on her feet in an instant. "Shinichi! What're you doing here?" The guys near her scattered, seeming to sense that this young man could be impending doom on legs if properly provoked.

He stopped in front of her while Hattori continued on his way, stalking towards Kazuha. "We came to get you."

"Why?"

"Well, because…you know…" he looked down at his shoes, suddenly embarrassed and with none of the bravado he had displayed upon marching into the club with the stated intent of retrieving her.

After a second, it clicked, and Ran smiled. "Shinichi…were you jealous?"

"…a little," he admitted, not looking directly at her.

Which meant that he was really surprised when she jumped forward and threw her arms around his neck. "That's so sweet!" she said happily. "But you know I'm not going to do anything like that." One of her hands touched the side of his face. "You're the only one for me."

Their moment was interrupted, however, by the screaming match going on further back in the club. "AHOU!"

"Heiji, what the hell are you doing?"

"I came here to make sure you didn't do anything stupid!"

"I can take care of myself!"

"No you can't! What if one of them tried to do something to you?"

"What, were you jealous?"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!!"

Shinichi winced and shook his head. Hattori was one of his best friends, but damned if he didn't want to smack him sometimes. "Hattori…just admit that you're jealous. Trust me. She'll like it."

* * *

**PS.** _There do exist host clubs in Japan, and they apparently tend to be a lot seedier than what we see in Ouran. Blame for this plunnie goes squarely on the shoulders of __**RanMouri82**__. It's all her fault. Totally. Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	28. After the Fact

**Title: **After the Fact  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#24—True friends stab you in the front.  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Is it better to be stabbed in the back or the front?

* * *

"Kudo, I—"

That was as far as Heiji got before Shinichi glared at him. Having frozen Heiji with a look, he turned and walked away, storming through a nearby door and out into a vacant corridor. They were at the headquarters of the Tokyo Metro Police Department to make statements about what had just happened.

But more than that, Heiji was having a hell of a time even getting Kudo to talk to him.

It wasn't like previous times, where one of them had gotten irritated with the other over something small, there had been a little bit of bickering, and then things had returned to normal. This was full-out anger. And somehow, he didn't think things would be back to normal tomorrow. As of right now, Kudo would barely even look at him, let alone invite a conversation.

Heiji followed him. "Dammit, Kudo, would you stop?"

Amazingly enough, Shinichi did. "What do you want? Haven't you done enough?"

"Kudo, I'm sor—"

"You're sorry. So very happy for you. That makes everything perfect, doesn't it?" Shinichi said mockingly, finally turning around. His blue eyes were flaring with anger. "Anything else?"

"I thought it would help," Heiji said.

"That doesn't change the facts. You told," Kudo said accusingly, sounding every bit like a petulant child.

"At least I was honest with you about what I did and why I did it," Heiji returned, already hating himself for the next words that were going to come out of his mouth, "unlike some people around here. Isn't it better to be stabbed in the front than the back?"

That visibly struck a nerve—Kudo flinched. If there was one thing about this whole situation that bothered Kudo, it was the fact that he had to lie to the people most important to him. He believed so desperately in the truth, only to find himself a hypocrite by circumstance. ""I trusted you. I knew that was a mistake, you son of a—"

"Oh, come off it!" Heiji said. "Do you think they were never going to find out? Ever? Newsflash—most secrets tend to come out into the open sooner or later. I've kept my mouth shut this whole time because it's what you wanted, not because I thought it was the right thing to do!"

"It wasn't your secret to tell, and you know it."

"I just…" Heiji's shoulders slumped in defeat. "…I just wanted to help."

"Well, you didn't," Shinichi spat. With one last angry look, he walked away.

Heiji stood in the middle of the hallway, staring at his friend's retreating back. "…I'm sorry."

* * *

**PS.** _It's a sad fact, but sometimes friendship isn't always happy. And sometimes friendships can fall apart. For the record, I don't know if Shinichi and Heiji patch things up—the plunnies didn't tell me that far along. But I'd like to think that Shinichi cooled down and things worked out. But I'll leave that to your own mental canons._

_Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	29. The Truth

**Title: **The Truth  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#20—making mischief  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **Is it possible that there's a method to Heiji's madness?

* * *

Being on one end of a phone conversation between Heiji and Kazuha was enlightening. It made Conan realize that no matter how screwed up things were, he could definitely be a lot more hopeless than he was. When his Osaka friend hung up the phone, Conan sighed. "Hattori, you are an idiot."

Rather than the usual disclaimers, the response was surprising. "Why?"

"You really don't have a clue, do you?"

"What, that I like Kazuha? Or that she likes me? Or that she's funny when she's angry?" Heiji said smugly.

It was one of the few times in his life, both as Conan and Shinichi, that he did a full-blown double take. "WHAT?" he gaped. "You're actually aware of all this?"

"Of course I am. I'm not stupid."

_I find that hard to believe,_ Conan thought dryly. But he kept that thought to himself, and simply said aloud, "Why in the world do you play dumb when all it does is make trouble for you?"

Heiji shrugged. "It's easier that way. If Kazuha thinks I'm clueless, than she won't expect anything from me. If there are no real expectations for me to meet, then there's no pressure. Will I do something about how I feel about her? At some point. But for right now, it's just fun to piss her off and watch the fireworks. Besides," he stuck his hands in his pockets and grinned, "arguing is fun."

Conan stared. That made sense. A twisted, wrong sort of sense…but it did make sense. "That's a sick sort of brilliant," he admitted. Secretly, he was wondering what other ideas were hiding away in Heiji's brain.

Maybe Hattori wasn't quite as dumb as he thought…

* * *

**PS.** _Don't know why this idea amused me so much. But the idea that Heiji is actually just playing dumb makes me smile. I'm actually fairly certain that he's not playing—he really is dumb. But the thought was nice. And so with this, we have reached number twenty-nine. One more fic to complete the challenge! YAY! Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


	30. As Time Goes By

**Title: **As Time Goes By  
**Author: **Candyland  
**Fandom: **Detective Conan  
**Friends: **Kudo Shinichi/Edogawa Conan and Hattori Heiji  
**Theme: **#30—friends forever!  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own Detective Conan—all the characters belong to Gosho Aoyama. I just kidnapped them and hid them in my closet to keep them safe from…I dunno, something awful, I'm sure. Don't worry, I feed them. Sometimes.  
**Summary: **We really have come a long way, haven't we?

* * *

There are some memories that tend to be commonplace between people who have been friends since childhood. There are the memories of games played, of movies and cartoons watched, of cookies eaten, of toys argued over, of silly bickering moments that were forgotten mere minutes later.

There are memories of playgrounds, of sandbox adventures, of teasing about the opposite sex having those mysterious cooties, of pushing each other headfirst down the slide, of contests to see who could jump the furthest from a moving swing, of standing up to the playground bully and getting a handful of sand in your hair for your troubles.

There are the memories of growing up together in every interpretation of the phrase.

Kudo Shinichi and Hattori Heiji shared none of these, save for the very last. They met when they were in high school (so to speak), and so were already nearing adulthood when they met. At the time, Kudo was trapped in the body of his seven-year-old self, hiding from those who wished to kill him.

In a strange, roundabout way, it was that situation that allowed them to become friends in the first place. Hattori discovered his secret, and Kudo had no choice but to trust him as a result of that. And from that uneasy beginning grew a partnership that continued along long after Kudo had returned to his rightful body.

So they both continued to grow up as things changed and life moved on…

_**-o-**_

After trying to sneak one too many bites, Heiji and Shinichi found themselves banned from the kitchen by their mildly-irate wives. Ran and Kazha were not amused at the childish antics of their husbands, and so ordered them to go elsewhere until dinner was ready.

They obligingly went outside onto the wooden walkways that lined the outside of the Hattori residence, a traditional-style house. They took a seat, choosing a spot that allowed them a perfect view of four children (of varying ages) kicking a soccer ball around in the yard.

"Your kid's in good form," Heiji commented after watching fourteen-year-old Conan juggle the ball like a pro before kicking it towards Yukari, Heiji's oldest at thirteen years of age.

"He's damn good on the field," Shinichi nodded, a definite note of pride in his voice. "Got that much from me, at least. More his mother's common sense, though." He paused, then chuckled. "Your brood just keeps growing, doesn't it?"

"Oh, shut up," Heiji retorted. He looked back over towards the kids…and frowned. "Take a look at that…"

He was referring to the fact that Yukari was laughing and ruffling Conan's hair for some unknown reason. And Conan did not seem to mind this gesture in the slightest—though there were probably precious few boys that age who would be much bothered by such a display of affection from a cute girl. In fact, it had only been a couple of months earlier that Conan had hesitantly confided to his mother that he had woken up one morning and realized that girls were really, really nice. Meanwhile, the two younger Hattori chidren were protesting and demanding that the game continue.

"…well, that's interesting," Shinichi commented dryly.

Heiji turned a mock-glare on his fellow detective and wagged a finger at him, growling, "You keep your son away from my daughter, you hear me?"

Now Shinichi laughed outright. "Keep your daughter away from my son! How about that?"

It was Heiji's turn to chuckle. He looked back out to the kids, who had finally resumed their game—Tomoe was chasing after an errant kick. "What do you think about that? Really? If Conan-kun and Yukari actually started something?"

"I think they're a little young to be worrying about it. They're thirteen and fourteen—even if something did happen, it probably wouldn't get serious for another few years," Shinichi said. "And at the end of the day, it's really up to them."

"But would you be okay with it?" Heiji repeated. "I'm asking what you think."

"…well, if they decided to get married someday, you and I would be related. And I won't stand for that," Shinichi replied with a completely straight face.

"This is why I don't like playing poker with you."

"Hattori, you know perfectly well that I have no sense of humor whatsoever."

The conversation came to a halt when the soccer ball bounced against Shinichi leg. He was about to kick it back towards them (he hadn't really played soccer in ages, but kicking a ball around the yard with Conan had kept his skills in fairly high form) when he saw Hattori's youngest daughter toddling after it; her sisters were cheering for her to go get it.

Deciding against actually kicking it back at the two year old—that could cause serious injury if aimed wrong—he picked it up and held it out to her. "Here you go, Midori-chan." She reached out and wrapped both her little arms around the ball, giving Shinichi and her father a big smile (no doubt inherited from her father) before turning and running back to the others as fast as her tiny legs would carry her.

Shinichi threw a glance at Hattori and noticed his expression, and so asked, "She has you wrapped around her little finger, doesn't she?" Not that he blamed the man for it—the little girl was absolutely precious.

"I admit to nothing."

"That's why I told Ran that she and I were never having a daughter."

Silence lapsed again, punctuated by the shouts and laughter of their children. Smells wafting from the open kitchen window indicated that a delicious dinner was on its way.

"Hey, Kudo?" Heiji said after a moment.

"Hmm?"

"Did you ever think we'd end up like this?" he asked. "I mean…got off to a rocky start, but now we've been friends for years and we're sitting around, watching our kids."

"Honestly? No," Shinichi said bluntly. "But granted, I was still sort of upset that you caught me, and at first I had to trust you because of the circumstances. And I don't like not having any control over my own situation. That's not a secret. And while I did warm up to you, I must say that something about this scene right now just doesn't feel right."

Heiji looked genuinely started at that. "Why?"

"…I feel like I should have a beer in my hand."

The laugh that answered that comment was both amused and relieved. "There's some in the fridge. Good luck getting past Kazuha to get to it. Woman's half watch dog, I swear."

"And yet you fell for her."

"…yeah."

"And married her."

"Yeah."

"And had three kids."

"All right, point made."

"…Hattori?"

"Huh?"

"…we really are best friends, aren't we?" Shinichi pondered. "Have been since day one." The first part wasn't so much a revelation as the second. For all his brilliance as a detective, he still sometimes struggled with people, and it was at moments like this that it showed the most.

"Well…yeah," Heiji replied. He was silent a moment, then chuckled. "Is your head still hard as a rock?"

"I don't know," Shinichi said dryly. "Let me ram my head into your nose, and we can find out."

"Like hell."

"Hey, not in front of the kids," Shinichi said in mock warning. "Or I'll have to tell Kazuha-san."

"Tell me what?"

Both menlooked up to see her standing in the doorway with a smile. "Are we all behaving ourselves?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Heiji said with a feigned salute.

"Only if Ran's within earshot," Shinichi joked, earning a laugh from Kazuha. They had gotten off to a very tedious start, what with the Conan fiasco and everything. But Heiji insistences had helped, and the two had eventually become friends.

"Well, dinner's almost ready," she said cheerily. "Can you gather up the kids and get them to the table?"

"No problem. Watch this," Shinichi cupped one hand around his mouth. "Conan! Dinner!"

There was a sound like a sonic boom, and their hair rustled in a breeze that followed a full second later. And the boy in question was nowhere in sight. Kazuha blinked. "What…was that?"

Shinichi grinned. "My son. Mention food around teenage boys, and you will probably instigate a stampede. The state of their stomachs influences their entire well-being or lack thereof. At present, Conan is a black hole on legs—always hungry."

"Girls!" Heiji called. They'd already heard Shinichi's 'hog call' to his own son; Yukari was gathering up Midori and following Tomoe back to the house. As the children made their way into the house with their mother, the two men stayed where they were for a moment longer.

"We really have come a long way, haven't we?" Shinichi remarked.

"You more than me," Heiji pointed out. "You were still stuck as a shrimp. But you're right. We grew up…"

"Finally got you to admit that you had feelings for Kazuha-san…"

"You finally made a move on Neechan…"

"Got married…"

"Had kids…"

"Successful careers as detectives…"

"And we haven't strangled each other yet."

Shinichi stood up. "And you still can't kick a soccer ball."

"And you can't mimic a decent Osakan accent to save your life," Heiji replied, also rising to his feet.

They had come through a lot from that first rather unorthodox beginning, braving both the trials of professional and everyday life, and the less-than-ordinary, like busting the Black Organization. And yet here they were.

"Okay, enough of this sentimental crap," Heiji said in his usual manner. "I'm starved."

No further encouragement was needed. And the two detectives went inside to join their families for dinner.

* * *

**PS.** _And so it ends._ _Wow…this challenge took a while, didn't I? Not that I, ya know, forgot about it for six months or anything, sparkly halo goes here. But this has been a fun challenge, really. There never seem to be enough platonic fics out there, and I do enjoy them so—particularly Shinichi and Heiji, as they have such an interesting dynamic between their personalities. Viva la friendship!_

_Thank you to those who have been with me from the beginning, and those who are tuning in for the first time. I sincerely hope you enjoyed the stories, strange and silly as some of them were. Thanks a bunch! Much love, all!_


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